LILIUM RUBELLUM 
Description and Cultural Notes 
By PETER BARR 
When I saw the “Garden” plate of this lily in 1898 I thought it a 
form of Lilium Krameri, but since seeing Rubellutn flowering in Japan 
I consider it a good species and am sure it will be extensively cultivated 
when better known and its culture understood, I cannot conceive of 
anything more beautiful than a six-inch pot with the plants of this lovely 
lily in flower in early spring. It is one of the earliest lilies, flowering a 
month ahead of Krameri. It grows about one foot high, compact and 
elegant, with flowers ot a charming pink color. The leaves are shorter 
and paler green than Krameri. In pots, this lily should be grown in 
poor, stony, sandy loam with two inches of drainage and very judiciously 
watered from the time of potting. The soil must be kept moist, but never 
wet, and success will be sure to follow Out of doors, I would recom- 
mend a northern or eastern aspect, and failing this, plant under deciduous 
bushes, where the roots in winter will keep the bulbs comparatively dry, 
and shade the plants from the sun in the early spring. I think you 
should caution your clients against exposing the bulbs to a dry atmos- 
phere; the scales are thin and soon shrivel, therefore if the bulbs cannot 
be potted up or planted out right away they should be buried in dry soil 
or out of doors in a northern aspect where they will take no injury from 
the weather and the bulbs keep plump. 
