LILIES AT YALDING, IN KENT. 



407 



of great anxiety. In the drought of spring I decided to let in the water 

 from the pond, but the pipe was hopelessly choked and refused to act, 

 and no water ever passed through it, then or subsequently. The six 

 bulbs all flowered fairly well, one producing seven flowers, and I was happy. 

 I left the choked pipe severely alone the next spring, 1900, the only water- 

 ing ever vouchsafed being the limited ration doled out from the clouds in 

 our part of Kent, and the occasional one or two big potfuls from the pond 

 after the spikes were out of the ground. The 1900 bloom was something 

 extraordinary. Six spikes, one of them from an offset only, gave a total of 

 105 perfect flowers, the actual numbers being 39 (probably an English 

 record up to the present time), 24, 14, 13, 12, and 3. 



I regret that the only photograph taken was insufficiently exposed and 

 useless, but many friends came to see and smell and admire. (Fig. 185.) 



The 39-flower spike was quite 7 feet high, the others a little shorter. 



This year (1901), as I feared, the display has not been so brilliant. 

 No fewer than twelve spikes came up, and all but one (a strong blind one) 

 flowered, including the smaller offsets, so it is evidently a prolific Lily 

 when comfortable. Eighty- seven flowers expanded, and the effect was 

 again very pleasing, though the greatest number on one stem was only 

 fourteen, and the stems were quite a foot shorter than last year. This 

 time a photograph was kindly taken by a friend, and I hope it may duly 

 appear in The Garden together with others of various Lilies doing well 

 with me. 



And now I come to the crux of the whole matter, and I say that the 

 reason of my success is not far to seek, now that we learn from Mr. Carl 

 Purdy that Parryi is not a bog Lily after all — only, apparently, a lover of 

 well-drained beds of suitable soil in the vicinity of mountain streams. 



Mr. Wallace, who paid me a visit lately and was much interested in 

 my Lilies, knows more about Parryi than most of us, and he will have 

 told you, probably, the history of his various plantings. And we shall 

 have learnt better how to grow it in future, I trust, and lose no more in 

 the uncongenial wet peat originally devoted to it. I dare not suggest 

 that my proceedings should be imitated. I cannot say, " Put a pipe from 

 your pond into the peat-bed, plant your Parryi bulbs, stop up the pipe 

 scientifically so that no water can pass through it, and there you are ! " 

 But it seems that thorough drainage and the vicinity of water are the two 

 essentials ; if there are other important ones I am unable in my ignorance 

 to detect them, though I might perhaps add as a factor in my success the 

 comparative dryness of the peat-bed in winter, for no artificial watering 

 has been given till the spikes first appeared. The proximity of the bulbs 

 to the walls of the tank, which is always full of Avater, may, of course, 

 ensure the presence of a certain amount of necessary moisture ; at any 

 rate it keeps the bulb cool at all times. 



I will conclude these rather rambling notes with the expression of the 

 hope that they may contain something to interest if not to instruct, the 

 numerous Lilv-growers of the E.H.S. 



