ie 
Bree 
THE EASTER LILY IN NORTHERN CLIMATES. 9 
CONDITIONS IN THE FIELD. 
The experience of the Bureau of Plant Industry with these lilies 
has been restricted to a heavy retentive clay soil ameliorated by the 
use of some sand and plenty of very rough stable manure. None of 
these stocks have as yet been grown on sandy soil. 
The seedlings have usually been set out in 3-foot beds 5 to 8 inches 
apart each way, which seems to afford ample space. Between the 
beds a 15-inch path has been left, which is also ample; a 12-inch 
path might |e sufficient. 
After planting, it is desirable to work a little mulch of some 
suitable material between the plants to assist in preventing the 
ground from baking, preserving moisture, and keeping the soil cool. 
For this purpose sand and spent manure from sweet-potato beds, old 
manure, and even fresh very strawy manure have been used. The 
care of these plantings during the summer has consisted in keeping 
down the weeds by hand and watering during dry weather. In well- 
prepared soil, mulched with some débris, hand weeding is not a seri- 
ous matter. 
DEVELOPMENT DURING THE SUMMER. 
Lily plants set in the field from 2-inch pots in late April or early 
May will begin to throw up scattering stems in July, and some blos- 
soms will appear late in the month. These early-flowering forms 
will be short, few flowered, and in general disappointing. As the 
season advances the stems become longer and bear a large number of 
flowers, but never are the plants in the field as tall as those in the 
ereenhouse, although they often reach a height of 24 inches or more. 
When the time for frosts arrives there will be plenty of plants show- 
ing either flowers or buds to the number of three to seven, and in 
rare instances as many as a dozen. Possibly 25 per cent will have 
flowered, and the earliest will be maturing their seed, but most of 
the plants, nearly 75 per cent of them, will be in the form of large 
rosettes of basa] leaves and plants which have started to form stems. 
REPOTTING FROM THE FIELD. 
Before there is danger of severe frosts in autumn the lily seedlings 
should be repotted for winter flowering. The minimum temperature 
to which they should be subjected out of doors is about 28° F. 
The plants can be dug conveniently with a spading fork, ordinary 
care being used not to bruise them. (Fig. 5.) Most of the dirt 
is taken off the roots, and they are laid loosely in boxes, to be trans- 
ferred to the packing shed. Here within three or four days they are 
put into the smallest-sized pots into which they will go. Most of 
them, though, will have to go into 6-inch pots, for the reason that on 
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