16 BULLETIN 962, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
or after the tops are cut by freezing weather, but before there is 
danger of the ground freezing to any great extent. All the top | 
growth should be cut off and the bulbs reset about 4 inches deep and 
mulched, preferably with an inch or two of manure, after the ground 
freezes a little. In the latitude of Washington, D. C., the digging and 
resetting can be done most advantageously about the 1st of November, 
when it is advised that dormant bulbs generally be planted. Handled 
in this way the seedlings will have a maximum period of development 
and will still have time to get a firm hold on the soil before winter 
sets in. 
TREATMENT OF SEEDLINGS AFTER THEY HAVE FLOWERED IN THE GREENHOUSE. 
The disposition made of the bulbs after flowering will depend en- 
tirely upon circumstances. If the florist sells potted plants, that, 
of course, is the end of the transaction. He will then produce more 
seed and raise a new crop of seedlings for each winter’s flowering, 
as described in previous pages. If, as is more likely the case in all 
middle latitudes, he wishes to work up stocks of vegetatively propa- 
gated bulbs to be handled like imported stocks, it will be necessary 
to preserve the bulbs as his potted plants flower. In this case, the 
flowers can be cut with short stems for formal pieces, or even with 
a foot of stem cut. The pots should then be kept rather dry and 
allowed to dry up completely within a month or six weeks. Any 
time after the 1st of April, or before if the soi] can be worked, the 
bulbs can be planted in the open ground. 
The plants will blossom again in late July. In the fall they will 
be dug, the largest bulbs taken out for forcing or for sale, and the 
increase replanted in order to continue the outdoor growing. 
PRODUCTION ON A VEGETATIVE BASIS. 
PLANTING VEGETATIVELY PROPAGATED STOCKS. 
The previous pages deal with seedling stocks up to the time they 
are ready to be propagated vegetatively, as the Easter lily is usually 
produced. If these same stocks are to be grown continuously the | 
handling must, of course, be modified. Normally, the lly bulbs will 
be planted in late autumn; but if the first-year seedlings have been 
flowered in the greenhouse the bulbs will have to be planted out as 
soon as the ground can be worked in the spring. 
The character of the field planting will probably resolve itself 
into a bed eventually, mainly on account of the advantage of a 
mulch, which becomes an excessive burden in any but the most in- 
tensive form of culture. No better method of planting can be 
recommended than the Dutch bed, in which the planted space is 3 
feet wide, with a 12-inch to 15-inch path between the beds. The bulbs 
are planted seven to nine or more to the row across the bed. (Fig. 8.) 
