14 BULLETIN 1459, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
When merchandising for forcing purposes such handling is not 
feasible, but there is no difficulty in handling the bulbs in ways very | 
comparable with what obtains now with the Easter lily, leaving the 
bulbs in storage until late December or early January. 
There is no lily bulb that handles more easily and keeps better 
than the Regal. On two occasions small quantities of the bulbs have 
been stored in dry sand in a frostless, slightly heated cellar room, 
once from October and once from New Year’s to April, with good 
results. On another occasion bulbs dug in mid-September were 
stored in open boxes at a temperature of 36° F. until November 1, 
when they were in perfect condition. 
Bulbs of this lily received in the fall and intended for forcing can 
be handled satisfactorily in several ways. They may be potted up 
right away, kept on the dry side, and set away in the heeling ground, 
either buried or covered so as not to freeze, until the first of the 
year, when they can go directly into heat. If more convenient, the 
bulbs can be held in cold storage at a temperature of 34 to 36° F. 
awaiting the time for potting and forcing, or they may be buried in 
dry earth and held in a dry, rather low-temperatured situation until 
potting time. | | 
Potting the bulbs October 1 and subjecting them to even a mod- 
erate temperature of 50° F. at night has given uniformly poor re- 
sults. One season several hundred bulbs were divided into two lots 
and placed in two greenhouse units, one held at 50° F. at night until 
the first of the year, and the other started under the same conditions 
and then run up to 60° F. The two lots started top growth close 
to the same date, but a very large percentage of the bulbs in the 
higher temperature failed entirely. ‘They rotted in the pots so badly 
that only a small percentage blossomed at all. The lot held at the 
lower temperature was transferred to the 60° temperature in late 
January. They did better, but were far from satisfactory. 
The Regal lily is very different in some of its habits from the 
Easter lily (Lazwm longifiorwm). It must have its period of rest 
after the season’s growth, whereas longiflorum can be handled almost 
as an evergreen under some conditions. Even seedlings of the Regal 
before the flowering stage become dormant in fall when heat and 
moisture conditions are favorable. 
An attempt was made one year in the early part of these investiga- 
tions to continue the growth of first-year seedlings into the winter, 
~which can be so well done with longzfiorum. The seedlings which 
were started in flats November i were pricked off into 2-inch pots 
in January and then planted in beds in the field in April. They 
were well handled during the summer and made a very good growth. 
With tops carefully preserved they were transplanted into 4 and 6 
inch pots October 1. After a period in which they were kept cool 
to become reestablished in the pots they were gradually inured to a 
temperature of 55 to 60° F. by January 1 and held so until early 
February. They remained partially green, but no growth of herbage 
took place, and the older leaves gradually yellowed, so that there 
was little top left by February.. As it seemed impossible to get 
action inside, the entire stock of 750 bulbs was moved into a frame 
and covered with straw, and there it remained, making fairly good 
root development, until early in April, when the plants were knocked 
