12 BULLETIN 1331, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
THE BULBS AFTER FORCING 
Forced bulbs can be used very advantageously for growing: on, or 
they can be scaled for propagation and the stem bases used for the 
same purpose, as described elsewhere, when the pots are not sold. 
As with the field-grown stocks, the propagation in whatever form 
ean be done as soon as the flowers have faded or, since in this case 
the blossoming is early in the spring, the bulbs can remain in the 
pots for a month or six weeks before being propagated. Whatever 
way it is done, the scales will give rise to bulblets which will come 
into leafage in autumn and go through the winter in vegetative 
condition, as usual with mature bulbs. 
COMMERCIAL SIZES 
The bulbs of the Madonna lily are naturally much larger than 
those of other commercial lihes. On the market one seldom sees 
bulbs smaller than 18 centimeters (7.09 inches) in circumference, 
and they may reach as high as 30 centimeters (11.81 inches). For- 
merly the larger sizes, known as “jumbos,” were common enough 
on the market, but since the war the smaller sizes have been the 
only ones seen. Bulbs are sold according to size, the quotation being 
usually for a circumference varying about 2 centimeters (0.79 inch) 
each from 18 centimeters upward. 
PACKING AND SHIPPING 
The Madonna, like other lilies, is commonly shipped in boxes 
containing 100 to 200 or more bulbs, depending on their size. The 
packing material in foreign shipments may be a fibrous peat or 
soil. The purpose of the packing material is to protect the bulbs 
from mechanical injury and where they are in transit for a long 
time from excessive desiccation. 
In the shipment of large bulbs by express, packing in sphagnum 
moss, grain chaff, or the lighter fibrous peats is very satisfactory. 
Sawdust is such a variable product that it is not safe. Old well- 
weathered material of some hardwood, redwood, or cedar is more 
likely to be satisfactory than pine, which contains too much turpen- 
tine and rosin. The objection to old weathered sawdust is that it is 
likely to absorb too much moisture from the bulbs. 
There is a possibility of adopting the conventional fruit pack for 
the domestic shipment of these lily bulbs. Each bulb wrapped in 
newspaper and packed tightly in apple boxes has traveled in very 
good condition by freight from Puget Sound to Washington, D. C. 
This may prove to be the simplest form of pack. 
It has been found that planting stock consisting of bulblets and 
scales carries very nicely in shipments across the continent by ex- 
press when a pint or less is put in paper bags and these bags are 
packed tightly in boxes. This breaks up the bulb mass so that 
sweating and heating do not occur in the center. A loose wrapper 
in the form of a light corrugated paper around the bag will give 
additional protection where necessary. 
Seedlings are readily transported when in second leaf or later. 
They are removed from the soil and laid four to six deep on a ribbon 
