THE REGAL LILY FOR EVERYMAN'S GARDEN 



A Flower for the Home Gardeners to Grow in Pots 

 and for Late Spring — The Little Trick in Management 



L FORCING FOR EASTER BLOOM 



EGAL LILIES grown in pots are 

 exceedingly decorative, yet are sel- 

 dom seen. for the very 

 good reason 

 that few gardeners 



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know the trick of 

 handlingthem. What 

 that treatment is has 

 been discovered by 

 Mr. William Anderson, 

 superintendent of the 

 Bayard Thayer estate 

 in Lancaster, Mass. 

 The Regal Lily makes 

 its top growth and its 

 root growth at the 

 same period, the former 

 being rather in advance of 

 the latter. Consequently, when 

 it is forced like the common Easter 

 Lily and other bulbs from Japan, it pro- 

 duces only a few small blossoms instead 

 of blooming with its natural luxuriance. 

 This fact seems to make the Regal Lily- 

 unavailable for commercial purposes, but 

 does not lessen its value to the private 

 grower. Mr. Anderson's method, which 

 gives entire satisfaction, is as follows: 



Medium sized bulbs are potted up in 

 early October, 6-inch pots being best, with 

 a single bulb to a pot. The soil used is 

 a mixture of two parts loam, one part leaf 

 soil, and a good sprinkling of bone meal. 

 The bulbs are set fairly deep in the pots, 

 and the pots set in ashes in a coldframe 

 and bedded with leaves or hay when 

 the nights become cold, the sash being 

 placed in position before severe freezing 

 weather comes. 



In the spring the pots are allowed to 

 remain in the frame or are removed to 

 any convenient position where there is 

 plenty of sunlight, and while growth is 

 being made liquid manure may be 

 given. The first season these bulbs 

 will flower only a little earlier than 

 those in the open ground, but are very 



convenient at that time for porch use or in the house. When 

 they fade, the flowers are removed, but the full length of stem 

 is left to die down naturally. 



In the following fall the bulbs go back to the coldframe (in 

 the same pots) and remain there until about the first of December 

 when they are taken into heat and forced in the same manner as 

 other Lilies. Having now acquired a heavy supply of roots, 

 they will stand forcing perfectly well, blooming freely at Easter, 

 if the grower is at all skilful. And as a forced Lily, the Regal is 

 unrivalled by any flower that blooms. When the secret of 

 handling it ceases to be a secret, it is likely to be found in green- 

 houses all over the country, for it propagates readily and grows 

 almost anywhere. It will often flower in eighteen months from 



THE REGAL LILY 

 White with 



(LILIUM REGALE) 

 yellow throat 



seed, but three years are required to 

 produce good forcing bulbs. Occa- 

 sionally this Lily is dam- 

 aged by spring frosts, in 

 the colder sections 

 of the country if 

 no protection is 

 given. In many 

 instances last spring 

 the tops were frozen 

 back after they had 

 made a little growth 

 and the decay which 

 set in as a result grad- 

 ually descended to 

 the bulbs. This is 

 not a common oc- 

 currence, however. 



II. GROWING A NEW 

 LOT FROM SEED 



N MANY gardens the Regal 

 Lily has ripened seeds this sea- 

 son, and the owners are won- 

 dering how this seed should be 

 Experience has shown that 

 April (or May) is the best time for put- 

 ting this seed into the ground. While 

 it can be planted in a corner of the 

 garden, much better results follow sow- 

 ing in a coldframe using plain ordinary 

 light soil, not manured, and scattering 

 the seeds on the surface and barely cov- 

 ering them with sifted soil. It need 

 not be anything more than a roughly 

 made frame but it protects the 

 young plants from the drying winds 

 and allows them to be covered in 

 winter, although this covering need 

 not be anything more than straw or 

 pine boughs. It is best to leave the 

 young plants in the frames through the 

 season and until October of the next 

 year. Then they can be transferred to 

 the open ground, as good sized bulbs 

 It is a simple matter to grow Regal 



planted. 



will have been made 

 Lilies from seed in this way. 



IN THE valley of the Min River in Western China where the 

 Regal Lily has its home and whence it was brought to us a 

 very few years ago by Mr. E. H. Wilson of the Arnold Arbore- 

 tum, it is subject to intense summer heats and severe cold in 

 winter. Yet despite these climatic disadvantages the Regal 

 Lily riots through the Min and neighboring valleys and climbs 

 the mountain sides literally in "tens of thousands." Anything 

 so adaptable and so enduring readily adjusts itself to new con- 

 ditions and this "queen of all Lilies" already reigns in many of 

 our American gardens. 



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