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JOUENAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



His garden at Weybridge, with the Pines in it and about it, is known 

 to many of us, as being the place where Lihes have been the chief objects 

 of care and culture, and where experiments in their culture have been 

 carried out for forty years. By the examples afforded in the garden, and 

 by the published records of his experiments, Mr. Wilson has added 

 immensely to our knowledge of Lilies and how best to grow them. 



But it is in the garden at Wisley, a few miles from Weybridge, that 

 Mr. Wilson has achieved the greatest success in Lily culture. This 

 garden, a little more than twenty years ago, was simply a small wood, 

 chiefly of oak trees in the low-lying part, and with open fields sloping 

 with a northern exposure to the wood. The soil in the wood was, as one 

 may suppose from the growth of oaks, of a stiffish nature, but with a 

 good depth of accumulated leaf soil from the trees. The soil of the 

 slopes was of a light sandy loamy nature. 



The wood was naturally moist, too moist, in fact, in some places, so 

 ditches were cut to carry oft' the excess of water, and this simple draining 

 was all that the wood required to make it suitable for Lilies. 



Then Mr. Wilson began to plant Lilies of all kinds in all possible 

 conditions of shade and exposure, in dry soil and wet soil, and in various 

 kinds of soil, the result being, as one sees to-day, marvellous, for now, 

 after of course many failures in certain cases, Lilies of all kinds, common 

 and rare, are growing under the conditions apparently most suitable for 

 their requirements. The Wisley garden is an object lesson in what may 

 be done by patience and devoted care and attention to details, and having 

 known the garden from its commencement, and visited it many times, I 

 have derived from it most of the hints I am giving in Lily culture. 



During the past month (July) I visited it, and saw masses of Lilies 

 growing in native luxuriance. Szovitsianum, 8 feet high, under Apple- 

 trees, supcrhumm the partial shade, 7 and 8 feet high, and the same with 

 jMi'dalinuin, Humboldti, dalmaticum, giganteum, auratum, and a host of 

 others, including the fastidious Kramcri, which was 4 feet high, growing 

 imder the dense shade of Magnolia acuminata. 



Here is a garden delightful in every way, founded and ordered by a 

 master in the art of Lily culture, and though we cannot expect to find 

 frequently such exceptional gardens, there is no reason why such a Lily 

 garden in localities w^here the natural conditions are at all suitable should 

 not be enjoyed. 



A woodland Lily garden is one of the most delightful phases of 

 gardening, for there Lilies gain so much in beauty and graceful effect in 

 association with tree growth, and appear more as they are in nature than 

 elsewhere, as for the most part Lilies are woodland plants, loving the 

 partial shade and the shelter afforded them during their tender stages of 

 growth. 



An ideal spot for a Lily garden is to be found in most large places and 

 often in small ones. Sometimes it is an open clearing, natural or made, 

 in a wood where, though sheltered from cold winds, the place is airy and 

 admits sun all about it. Sometimes one finds an open glade wdth a rill 

 running through it. That, again, is another place, especially where the 

 moisture-lovers will flourish and gain much in beauty by a background of 

 foliage. 



