256 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



is an open one to the south and west, sheltered, if possible, from 

 the east and north. In cold and heavy clay land they will 

 not do well ; they will grow, and sometimes produce very strong 

 crowns, with but few fibrous roots ; but such crowns are not fit 

 for early forcing, as, owing to the nature of the soil, they are 

 kept growing too long, and do not ripen off early enough. 



The ground must be deeply dug and well broken at the 

 same time, working in plenty of old hotbed manure, linings, 

 rotten leaves, &c, all well decomposed and crumbled to pieces. 

 This work should be done in the autumn in dry weather, in 

 order to be ready for planting as soon as crowns can be obtained. 

 I greatly prefer autumn planting, considering that the sooner 

 the crowns are in the ground the better. Nothing is more 

 injurious to the roots of lilies than exposure to sun and wind. 

 I have been compelled sometimes to plant in March in drying 

 east winds with bright sunshine, when it has been impossible 

 to get the roots covered quickly enough to prevent their 

 getting dry, and the consequences have been disastrous. 



The ground having been prepared, the best and quickest 

 method of planting is in rows seven or eight inches apart, 

 the plants being about one inch apart in the rows ; paths of 

 fifteen to eighteen inches wide may be left between every eight 

 rows for the convenience of weeding. In planting, which is 

 done by throwing out trenches about five inches deep, take 

 care that the crowns are not set too deep ; they should be 

 only just deep enough for the tips of the crowns to be level 

 with the surface of the ground. A good mulching of cow 

 manure, or, if this cannot be had, well-rotted stable manure, 

 completes the work, and nothing further is required but keeping 

 the beds free from weeds and giving them plenty of water in 

 dry weather during the summer. 



If one-year-old crowns have been selected for the start, they 

 will require three seasons of growth before being fit to be lifted 

 for forcing. It must not be supposed that so-called one-year-old 

 crowns are actually twelve months old ; they really represent only 

 four to five months' growth, the rhizomes beginning to grow in 

 June or July, forming the crown under ground during the summer. 

 Thus when they are fit to lift as flowering crowns their actual 

 age is three and a half years. It is true that by good cultivation 

 many of these crowns will bloom in two years from the time of 



