How Everybody Can Have Lilies— By h. e. Giik ey> as 
SOME EASILY GROWN KINDS THAT MAY BE INCREASED IN YOUR OWN GARDEN 
FROM A FEW BULBS BOUGHT NOW— RAISING FROM SCALES AND FROM SEED 
T HERE is an enchantment about 
lily growing that is contagious. 
If you have the right spirit, you 
want to have a supply large 
enough to furnish all your less fortunate 
friends with a bunch. That spirit will 
cause you to succeed, too. 
Like all amateur enthusiasts, you see the 
rosy side of the cloud. You have just 
come from a neighbor’s garden where you 
have inhaled the exquisite fragrance of a 
clump of gold-banded lilies. There they 
The gold-banded lily of Japan (L. auratum) is especially 
gorgeous, and well worth finding a place for 
were, massed together in a cool nook set 
in a background of tall rhododendrons. 
The vision enchanted you. The majesty 
of their size, the purity of their whiteness, 
the warmth of their gold, the grace of their 
exquisitely curled and crested segments, 
the sweetness of their matchless fragrance, 
all these have combined such an array as 
to benumb the senses. To the flower lover, 
rare moments like these are glimpses into 
heaven. That’s how I got my enthusiasm 
for lilies. 
But you have seen nothing but the joys 
of lily growing. If you had been discern- 
ing, you would have marked the vacant 
spaces in that planting. Those weren’t 
left there bv the design of the gardener. 
They mark the place where a bulb has rot- 
ted and of course not come up at all, or 
where one has sud- 
denly withered away 
after giving all in- 
dications of a success- 
ful career. Those va- 
cancies are rather 
more frequent than 
the gardener could 
wish for. When you 
ask him what the l 
trouble is, he replies 
in awed tones, “Lily Disease.” If he is 
wise, he will not try to give you full direc- 
tions for the eradication of the disease. 
He couldn’t do it. No man has yet, al- 
though he may tell you to wash the bulbs 
in a solution of copper sulphate or a dozen 
other remedies. The fact remains, that 
the lily disease is here, although some lilies 
are affected in a more serious manner than 
others. Some species are apparently not 
affected at all. This gives the problem a 
hopeful aspect. If we desire to grow lilies, 
then let us confine ourselves to immune 
species and to those which are only slightly 
subject to the ravages of the disease. 
A great deal of trouble can be avoided by 
taking pains with the preparation of the 
bed. Make the soil deep. Two feet is not 
too much. Look at the root-system of 
Lilium Henryii. Notice what an enormous 
stem-root system it has. This bulb was 
planted twelve inches deep measuring from 
the bottom of the bulb. Its roots went six 
inches deeper yet. Stem roots are thrown 
out regularly until the very surface of the 
ground is reached. There they stop. When 
the bulbs of this species are planted less deep- 
ly, there are few stem-roots. Within reason- 
able limits, the depth of the bulb determines 
the number of stem-roots and indirectly 
the vigor of the whole plant above ground. 
Good drainage is essential when deep 
planting is practised. When the ground 
is liable to remain saturated for any great 
length of time, the bulbs will be in danger 
of decay. Yet I have seen the leopard 
lily growing rampantly in the very bed of a 
mountain stream, with water covering the 
bulb. But the drainage was perfect. 
Few, even among the natives of Cali- 
fornia, have seen the leopard lily at home. 
It dwells in the steep canons of the Coast 
Ranges, as well as in the Sierras. Right in 
the very bed of the stream, it is often found, 
although it seems to thrive best on the 
margin. In the winter that mountain 
stream is a raging torrent, dashing dow r n 
the steep gorge of the canon. Below that 
mad flood of water lie the leopard lilies. 
In the summer the brook is peaceful 
enough. But the lilies are in their full 
glory now. The gorge is full of them, great 
masses of orange and vermilion, this time 
a living stream of molten copper, the waves 
Henry’s lily (L. Henryi) showing 
the stem roots. On left a bulbel 
after one year’s growth 
How a bulb is produced from a scale. A simple means of increase for many lilies 
of tawny blossoms ever 
advancing and receding 
in the sway of the west 
wind. 
Getting back to the 
consideration of making 
lily growing more certain 
by intelligent culture, one 
of the prime essentials is 
to have the soil free from 
fungous diseases or path- 
ological d i s - 
orders. Keep 
the soil sweet. 
Put lots of 
lump charcoal 
in the drain- 
age. There is 
a chemical rea- 
son for this. 
Charcoal is al- 
most pure car- 
bon and has 
the effect of 
breaking up in- 
jurious organ- 
ic acids into 
carbon dioxid 
and water. 
The water is 
harmless and 
the carbon 
dioxid passes 
off into the air. 
You have no- 
ticed this upon tasting your soda after leav- 
ing it exposed to the air for a few minutes. 
All that remained was sweetened water. 
The carbon dioxid had escaped. When you 
place lumps of charcoal in your drainage 
and a little powdered charcoal near the base 
of the bulbs, you are helping greatly in 
keeping the soil sweet. 
Avoid stable manure. It is almost sure 
to cause the loss of all your bulbs through 
the lily disease. Supply humus from some 
other source. Leaf-mold is perhaps the 
most easily obtained, although peat is 
largely used in England. Peat has the 
advantage of being freer from fungous 
contamination. 
However, leaf - mold 
can be rendered 
practically sterile of 
injurious fungi by ex- 
posing it to the sun 
for a few days before 
incorporating it in the 
soil of your beds. 
The problem of 
getting leaf-mold is a 
serious one in the 
city. Make your own 
leaf-mold. Reserve a 
corner of the back- 
yard where you can 
dig a pit for the leaves 
as they are gathered 
up in the fall. A 
large box will answer 
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