14 
House & Garden 
Close inspection of a lily discloses an 
interesting structure. The dark mass 
on the lower segment is pollen 
tions is the Regal lily, which has been award¬ 
ed three gold medals. It is absolutely hardy ; 
the flowers are white, faintly suffused with 
pink, with a shading of golden yellow at the 
base of the trumpet, which is in form simi¬ 
lar to the popular Easter lily of the florist’s 
window (L. Harrisii). Unlike that variety, 
however, it has a delicate jasmine-like per¬ 
fume. It is 4' to & high, and blooms early 
in July. Lilium Sargentice is similar in the 
size, shape and color of its blossoms to 
L. Harrisii, hut attains a height of 6' to 8', 
and blooms later than the red Regal lily, 
coming along in the latter part of July. 
Native Varieties 
While most of our hardy garden lilies are 
from Japan, China and Southern Europe, 
there are several native sorts which are 
really beautiful. The most graceful of these 
is the Canadian bell-lily. It is a pure golden 
color, with small black spots. It grows from 
2' to 4' high, blooming freely during mid¬ 
summer. I can well remember following 
close on the swinging scythes to gather these 
lilies by the armful in the wake of the ruth¬ 
less mowers. There is a crimson form, 
C. rubrum, just as hardy and satisfactory. 
Another native is superbum, the scarlet 
“Turk’s Cap” of our woods and meadows; 
pretty, but lacking the airy grace of the 
others just named. It grows to about 5' 
in height, blooming in July and August. 
Space is lacking to describe in detail the 
standard varieties, such as the tiger lily, of 
which there are two new forms, splendens, 
and Fortunei; and also a double-flowering 
form, flore-pleno. Then there are the Ma¬ 
donna lily (L. Candidum ) always popular 
because of its pure white fragrant flowers, 
and its early season of bloom; the coral lily, 
(L.tenuifolium) 1 y 2 ' high, with fiery scarlet 
flowers that bloom in July; elegans, about 
2' high, bearing its yellowish orange flowers 
as early as June; Wallacei, orange scarlet, 
with chocolate spots, which grows to 3' and 
holds its beauty back until September; con- 
color, one of the most brilliant scarlets of all, 
some 2' high; Martagon, of a purplish crim¬ 
son shade, with darker spots, 3' high, bloom¬ 
ing in July and August; and the “leopard 
lily” (L. pardalinum) , scarlet yellow, with 
maroon spots, growing 3' high. 
Many plantings of lilies prove unsuccess¬ 
ful for one of two reasons: they are planted 
too shallow ; and care is not taken to provide 
good drainage. Plant your lily bulbs deep— 
6" to 8" for the native and miscellaneous 
varieties, and 12" for the Japanese sorts, 
which form root above the bulbs. Plant only 
in soil which is naturally well drained, or 
has been dug out to a depth of 2' or so, and 
given a drainage layer of cinders or peb¬ 
bles before being refilled. Most of the 
lilies like coolness and moisture, but they 
will not survive water standing about them 
in the soil. In planting, make the holes suf¬ 
ficiently deep and large so that several hand¬ 
fuls of sand may be placed below and about 
the bulb before the soil is filled in. If man¬ 
ure is to be used at all, it should be old com¬ 
post, thoroughly decomposed; a little fine 
bone will do, and is safer. All soft, loose- 
scale bulbs should be placed on their sides 
in planting; this will prevent water working 
into the heart of the bulb and rotting it. 
The native bulbs and some of the Euro¬ 
pean varieties are usually shipped during 
the latter part of September. Plant them 
as soon as they are received. At the same 
The erect blossoms of Lilium croceum 
are a bright orange-yellow spotted with 
purplish black in the center 
time prepare the soil for all plantings of 
such bulbs as do not arrive in this country 
until late, such as auratum, speciosum, 
Henryi, Batemannice and Krameri. If they 
have not been delivered by cold weather, 
cover the bed with a mulching of leaves or 
straw deep enough to keep it from freezing, 
and you will have no trouble in planting 
when they finally do come in. It is well to 
request on your order that bulbs of the 
Madonna lily be shipped as early as possi¬ 
ble, in a separate shipment if necessary, as 
it is very important to get this variety into 
the ground as soon as it can be had. 
Protection and Disease 
During the blooming season it is well to 
protect the stalks of the lilies against wind, 
which will break them down. The stalks 
should be tied to a tall bamboo stake with 
a loose loop of soft twine. This trouble 
can be obviated, however, by planting the 
lilies in a place where they will be sufficiently 
protected from the wind. 
Fortunately, the lilies are fairly disease 
resistant, and it is only occasionally that the 
gardener will have to help them fight pests. 
Worms sometimes attacks the bulbs, but 
these can be offset by the sand in the soil 
and by not using fresh manure. Sometimes 
mice attack the roots, and for this the or¬ 
dinary trap or poisoning methods will be 
found effective. For aphis, spray with kero¬ 
sene emulsion. Several fungous diseases 
are natural to lilies, of which the worst is 
Botrytis. The presence of this is shown 
by rust-colored spots on the leaves and 
flowers. The diseased part should be cut 
off and burned and the other plants sprayed 
with Bordeaux mixture. If a whole bed is 
affected, it must be dug up, root, bloom and 
stalk, and burned. 
Preventing Freezing 
In the fall, on the approach of freezing 
weather, the bulb bed and new bulb plant¬ 
ings should be given a mulch of manure or 
dry leaves. Some of the lilies appear very 
early in the spring, and to prevent their 
being frost bitten it is a wise measure to 
cover the plants with an old sheet. 
The perennial gardener — she who has 
loved and lived in her garden for many years 
—knows the necessity for making her gar¬ 
den a year ahead. This wisdom the amateur 
must learn. And in no detail is this more 
necessary than in the planning for lilies. 
Too many of us think of a garden as the 
work of one year, whereas it really is the 
accumulation of many years’ work. If you 
want the full beauty you must labor for it. 
The list of available lilies presents a pecu¬ 
liar phase of this work. To get the desired 
results one must choose carefully, experi¬ 
ment, throw out and do the work over 
again. 
If your garden contains no lilies this year, 
or if those you have are badly placed or un¬ 
successful, anticipate your spring work by 
drawing up a plan for next year’s garden 
and locate the lilies on it. This will assure 
you some measure of success next year. 
With the bulbs ordered from reliable houses, 
with the ground prepared for their recep¬ 
tion, you need only plant as directed here 
and await the beauty to come next summer. 
Two forms of Lilium speciosum — rub- 
rum and album. The latter is unspotted 
white with a faint pinkish tinge 
