1876. ] 
THE CULTIVATION OF LILIES IN POTS. 
249 
moisture ; nor the opposite, of letting them get too dry at the roots through the 
•winter, spring, or summer ; nor in letting them remain in a dark situation, where 
the tops would become drawn up weakly after they appeared abo’ve ground 
in the spring; nor in permitting the young foliage to become a prey to aphides, 
which they are very subject to in the spring—any of which would have been fatal 
to the strength needful for increased vigour and flowering capabilities. But they 
had suffered in another way—that was, by letting too many bulbs remain in each 
pot in proportion to its size and capacity to hold enough soil to afford them the 
requisite sustenance. The yearly increase of the bulbs, by the flower-stems, as is 
their nature, dividing each bulb that produced them into two, had not been met 
by a sufficient increase in size of pot, or the other alternative of dividing the 
mass of bulbs and accommodating them with additional pots. 
I found, however, that sufficient room, in addition to strict attention to their 
other requirements, soon brought the stock up to their former condition. To 
do justice to them in this way, two, or at most, three good-sized bulbs 
are enough for a 12 or 14-inch pot. Lilies are not so particular as to the nature 
of the soil they are grown in as many things, but I have found that they do 
best in good turfy loam, with a moderate quantity of well-rotted manure added, 
and as much sand as will keep the whole fairly porous, but not too light. In 
potting one error is very often committed, the ill effect of which is perhaps more 
generally seen in the deficiency of the flowers for the current year produced by 
each stem, than in the injury it inflicts upon the bulbs permanently ; I allude to the 
practice of keeping the crowns of the bulbs too near the surface of the soil, the 
result of this being that the roots emitted from the stems for a short distance above 
the point where they spring from the bulbs, perish for want of soil in which to 
penetrate. The crown of the bulbs should always be covered from 4 in. to 5 in., 
according to their strength, the largest being placed the deepest, as they will 
produce these stem-roots higher up than the smaller ones. I have already indi¬ 
cated the most general causes from which failure usually results. There are no 
plants that have a greater dislike to their roots being disturbed when they are in 
motion, on account of their being so slow in again moving after being in any way 
mutilated. They commence to move in the winter long before the shoots begin 
to push, and if at all disturbed after they are thus active, the shoots, when they 
commence growing, lack the support of the roots destroyed, yet are impelled by 
the season to move ; but as might be supposed, their growth is correspondingly weak, 
and made at the expense of the strength stored up in the bulbs, which have to do 
the work nature assigned to the roots, and are thereby weakened. Whenever the soil 
in contact with the bulbs gets saturated with wet at a time the roots are dormant, 
they rot and perish. To this cause, consequent upon the heavy winter rains, 
may be attributed so many failures when they are planted out, unless where the 
soil is exceptionally open and porous. 
From the time the young shoots appear through the surface of the soil in the 
spring they should be subject to all the light it is possible to give them, as if 
