114 
The Garden Magazine, April, 1323 
THE SHOWY LILY RESPONDS 
BRAVELY 
A fine plant of Lilium speciosum forced for the 
second time; three stalks grew where one did 
in the previous year 
to a dry, cool cellar. The next October 
they were repotted in good earth and 
placed in a coldframe with a covering 
of about six inches of leafmold as 
mulch, and kept well watered. Ex¬ 
cept during severe winter weather the 
coldframe was left uncovered. Here 
the plants remained until shoots 
about two inches tall were formed 
under the frozen layer of mulch. The 
pots then were taken into a rather 
cool greenhouse, the tender leaves 
and flower clusters being kept shaded 
for several days until the former be¬ 
came quite green, when they were 
placed in full light and developed a 
profusion of bloom (see illustration). 
There was not a single really poor 
flower cluster in the entire lot (which 
included about fifteen varieties) and 
the flowers were fully as good as those 
produced the previous year. 
About fifty bulbs from the same lot 
of forced Hyacinths were planted in 
October directly in flowerbeds. Every 
one of these bloomed splendidly the 
following spring and were as satisfac¬ 
tory as newly purchased bulbs would 
have been. 
The Showy Lily was treated in 
much the same way, except that soon after it had died to the ground 
it was repotted, the pot being sunk in the earthen floor of a cold- 
frame and kept moderately watered during the summer. The 
Lily shown in the accompanying photograph was only one of many 
plants of several species, including L. candidum, L. longiflorum, L. 
elegans, L. Henryi, L. tigrinum, and L. speciosum that were quite 
successfully grown in this manner. 
T HERE is a somewhat different story to relate of various Nar¬ 
cissus. With the more hardy sorts which become established 
and bloom rather freely out-of-doors year after year, the results of 
repeated forcing were quite as satisfactory as with the Hyacinths. 
For example, a plant of Grand Monarque is here pictured in the 
third successive year of forcing, with good bloom each year. 
However, our experience at the New York Botanical Garden has 
shown that it is not an easy matter to secure a second bloom on the 
Paper-white Narcissus. When handled like the Hyacinths, the 
plants of the Paper-white Narcissus, after the first year of bloom 
have, as a rule, remained in a purely vegetative condition year after 
year, with no formation of flower buds, but of vigorous growth, show¬ 
ing no indication of exhaustion. In the winter of 1921-1922 a group 
of plants which had remained thus purely vegetative for one or 
more years was given special treatment. They were held in cold- 
frames dose to the freezing point for the greater part of the winter 
to delay the development of green 
leaves for as long a time as possi¬ 
ble before taking them into the 
greenhouse. Of these plants a con¬ 
siderable number bloomed splen¬ 
didly. But the difficulty of again 
securing blooms in Paper-whites 
after the first bloom from direct 
importation, and the lateness of 
the season when such bloom is ob¬ 
tained, make it advisable to buy 
new bulbs. The Paper-whites ap¬ 
pear to illustrate well the principle 
that nearly all plants will thrive 
vegetatively under conditions 
which often do not permit the for¬ 
mation of flowers. At any rate it 
evidently does not pay to grow 
Paper-whites, at least in the greater 
portion of the United States, after 
they have once bloomed. Even 
in Southern California where the 
Paper-white is hardy it is known 
to be a very poor bloomer. 
NARCISSUS NEEDS COAXING 
This plant of the Grand Monarque Nar¬ 
cissus is in its third cycle of succes¬ 
sive bloom, being forced each year 
Save your forced bulbs of Hyacinth; if 
properly handled they will bloom again 
either when forced, as were the plants 
shown above, or when planted in the garden 
HYACINTHS ARE STURDILY 
INCLINED 
