May 28, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
48B 
dirty pint, another rich salmon-rose, another quite purple, and 
what is usually distributed as purple; but there are two or thi'ee 
purples. I hope at some future time to be able to grow every 
variety obtainable side by side.—T. 
ONIONS AND CARROTS FAILING-. 
All cultivators of these two useful vegetables know how liable 
they are to fail at this season. The seed may be thoroughly good, 
sown at the right time, germinate freely, and the young plants appear 
strong and healthy, when it is noticed that a few are withering at 
the points, then they die, and often in a very short time the whole of 
the plants die. Probably this occurs in three gardens in every score 
throughout the country. Those who have learned from experience 
what may happen generally try to introduce a quantity of soot, lime, 
or some other grub antidote before sowing the seed, and this is a 
capital plan. Others who may always have been perfectly free from 
anything of the kind may not trouble to take any precaution, but it 
is in cases like this an attack of grubs may prove most destructive, 
and just now is a season specially favourable for it. Last year was a 
very bad season indeed for Onions, and it is to be hoped this one may 
be much better in this respect. 
We have not lost our Onion crop for more than ten year 3 , and the 
Carrots, never entirely fail, and rarely partially. We attribute our 
immunity to the few precautionary measures we take about this time 
every year with our crops. We have long noticed that grubs work 
much more freely in loose soil than in that which is quite firm, and as 
soon as it can be seen where our Carrot and Onions rows are we have 
the soil trodden down on each side as firmly as the men can make it, 
and from the time the plants are above ground until bulbs and roots 
are becoming prominent we dust the rows with soot weekly if it rains. 
A small sprinkling of salt is put on the Onions too, and sometimes a 
little guano. This may be regarded by many as very simple treat¬ 
ment, which may have failed with them, and this can be accounted 
for. We dress our Onions and Carrots as a p-eventive ; others may 
dress them as a cure. There is a great difference in this. I do not 
know.of anything which will really destroy the Onion maggot when 
once it has secured a footing. It generally works from the bottom up 
through the bulb, and no material which can be used then will pene¬ 
trate to its quarters ; but when it is in the soil and not under the 
shelter of the bulb the case is very different, and it is only at this 
early stage the pest can be successfully stamped out.—A Kitchen 
Gardener. 
THE STEM LOOTS OF LILIES. 
Are stem roots beneficial to the future flowering bulb, or are they 
not ? That appears to me to be the real point at issue. That they are of 
more or less assistance to the flower stems I think few will deny, and 
“Thinker” sums up that part of the question with his customary terse¬ 
ness and logic when he says they are “ of great service when they come.” 
That the flower stem will continue to develope after being severed from 
the bulb, if the roots at its base are preserved, I have proved practically, 
but I regret to say that I failed to make a note of the behaviour of the 
bulb afterwards. 
It has been asserted by an authority on Lilies that stem roots are 
positively detrimental to the proper development of the new bulb, “ be¬ 
cause they impoverish the soil and twine themselves in and out among 
the scales, suck out the sap, and destroy the bulbs for the next season’s 
bloom.” Now that is a strong case against stem roots, and in many 
instances too true. “ Thinker” says the finest examples he has ever seen 
had no stem roots. Will he have the kindness to tell us if the young 
bulbs of those examples produced as fine and floriferous flower stems the 
following season ? I venture to say that we must look to the cultivation 
of the previous season or of the intervening winter for the cause of 
stem roots if they are the result of improper cultural treatment, and 
not the outcome of excessive vigour. My observati m, up to the present, 
has led me to think that stem roots are invariably produced when the 
parent bulb does not contain with : n itself, and supplemented by its own 
roots, sufficient nourishment for the flower stems as perfected within the 
bulb itself the preceding season, and that the production of adventitious 
or stem roots is the effort of Nature to supply that which, from some 
cause or other, there would otherwise have been a deficiency of, and that 
the strength or thickness of the stem is immaterial—in other words, a 
strong stem is as likely to have stem roots as a weak one, and vice 
versa. 
“ Thinker ” further says, “ but that they do not come if not wanted for 
the full and adequate supp nt of the plant and future bulb.” That statement 
in its application is diametrically opposed to the opinion of the authority 
previously quoted ; and yet is it not quite possible for both statements 
to be correct ? 
To be of any assistance to the flower stem the stem roots must take 
up food from the surrounding soil, therefore there is so much less nourish¬ 
ment in a given space for the roots that support and build up the future 
bulb, consequently the soil is impoverished, and the future bulb propor¬ 
tionately diminished in size and vitality. But “ Thinker ” says they— 
the stem roots — only come when they are wanted for the [full and 
adequate support of the future bulb as well as the plant. If that is so, 
how does the bulb receive the support ? by direct or indirect means? I 
take it that the bulb receives benefit indirectly, first by being relieved 
of a. considerable proportion of the work of supplying the stem with 
nourishment, and secondly by receiving a larger return of elaborated sap 
—for I do not think that the foliage of Liliums is utterly useless or de¬ 
void of vital functions—than it would receive from a smaller, weaker, 
and entirely bulb-supported flower stem. The question will be asked, 
“ Is not the benefit received by the bulb by those means more than counter¬ 
acted by the impoverishment of the soil ? ” I think it would, all other 
conditions being equal. But inasmuch as under the conditions in view 
(pot culture alone) Nature cannot help herself, Art must assist Nature, and 
this is the cultivator’s opportunity. Strong exception has been occasion¬ 
ally taken to top-dressing Liliums, but I am inclined to think that more 
harm is done by careless watering afterwards than by the top-dressing 
itself, but the latter gets the blame. Every good plant-cultivator knows how 
difficult it is to water plants properly after they have been top-dressed, how 
misleading the dressing is to the inexperienced, and how apt the ball of 
the plant is to be either too wet or too dry. The Lilium beiag easy of 
cultivation receives in the majority of cases very little attention and care 
in watering ; and when they have been top-dressed this carelessness 
frequently leads to disastrous results. If the top-dressing is of a close and 
adhesive nature it retains moisture much longer than the proper Lilium 
soil does, and this leads to a deficient supply of water. On the other hand, 
if it is very light and loose, the water is quickly evaporated at the surface, 
the soil in which the principal roots are becomes cold, wet, and sour, the 
roots become inactive or perish, and the new bulb, when the plant 
comes to be repotted, is oaly a half or quarter the size it should be, 
and in many cases it has disappeared altogether. The Lilium requires 
constant supplies of water (more during the growing period than at any 
other time), but stagnation is death to them. 
I have said that in the case of Liliums grown in pots that “ Art must 
assist Nature.” By this I mean it to be clearly understood that more 
nourishment should be applied to the uoil than the stem roots themselves 
can appropriate ; thus the bulb roots will receive an adequate degree of 
support and not be impoverished, as they would otherwise. In practice 
here we feed, as nearly as we can, in proportion to the quantity of stem 
roots, and we have not yet had reason to regret doing so. The more stem 
roots there are the more liberal we are with stimulants, and our Liliums 
are, year after year, the admiration of all who see them. Theoretically 
this treatment may be radically wrong, but it answers well practically. 
Too frequently Liliums are repotted too late and planted too deep in 
the pots. Nothing is more conducive to failure than to turn the pots on 
their sides after flowering, and to place them in some out-of-the-way 
place, where they can have no water until the f blowing spring. 
The floweritig bulb for the following year commences rooting before 
the parent bulb has ceased flowering. Therefore, to deprive them 
entirely of water and fresh food for three, four, or five months after 
flowering causes deteriorated and deteriorating bulbs the following and 
each succeeding year. 
Most Liliums should be repotted immediately the flowers fade, without 
waiting for the “ ripening ” of the leaves and stem, because if the young 
roots have made much growth before being shaken out they are very liable 
to be seriously injured through breakage, &c. The pots should be well 
drained and a good body of compost placed therein sufficient to bring the 
top of the bulb within 2 or 2^ inches of top of the pot ; cover the bulbs 
with not more than an inch of soil and place the pots upright in a place 
where they can be kept cool and moist and safe from frost until the young 
growth appears above the surface of the soil, when they ought to be 
placed in light and cool structure such as a cold frame. For Lilium 
auratum the soil we use is is two parts rough peat, one part leaf mould, 
and one part sand ; and for all the varieties of L. speciosum we add one- 
part loam and one part old Mushroom bed. When we consider it necessary 
to use a top-dressing of soil we apply it of a similar texture to the above, 
but rather richer. Liquid manure is given at every alternate watering.— 
Reader. 
[We never saw a finer disp’ay of Lilium speciosum than a collection 
admirably grown by our correspondent.] 
Permit me to offer a few remarks respecting these Lilium’. The view 
that your correspondent, “ Scientia,” page 333, has taken after his ex¬ 
tended observations seems both novel and remarkable. “ Surface roots,” 
he observes, “ are a sure indication of sluggish root-action below.” If 
“ Scientia ” had had occasion to handle the thousands of L. auratum 
that have passed through my hands he would have learnt ere this that 
95 per cent of imported Lilies commence the ba ; al root-action first, and 
in many instances have made numbers of roots below before the stem 
growth emerges from the orifice of the bulb. This season the whole of our 
L. auratums (all imported ones) were placed in boxes of cocoa-nut fibre in a 
cold shed. These comprised several hundreds of bulbs, and were, accord¬ 
ing to trade custom, sorted in sizes. From time to time they were over¬ 
hauled and the fungus-affected parts removed. This decar [more readily 
detected after the bulbs have been, in the fibre for a week or two, there 
being sufficient moisture in the fibre to plump the bulbs and at the same 
time to accelerate the decay of the bruised portions of the scales ; and it is, 
I feel sure, due to these affected parts, decaying in the soil and continuing 
about the bulbs that a great per-centage of the annual losses arise. 
Where Liliums remain in the ground year after year the basal roots are 
generally emitted after the flowering is completed, and for that reason it 
has been urged by many that this is the best time for potting them. 
Bulbs of Lilium auratum are lifted for exportation, and nearly always in 
