HARDY PERENNIALS 
21 
Beds of Liliuni spec ios inn growing in Hors ford's Nurseries. (Sec page 21.) 
Lilies. 
No group of cultivated bulbs holds a more important position in horticulture than this grand genus. 
Most of the species are hardy in well-drained soil, but we find by experience that the loss frost tlio bulbs 
have to endure, the stronger they seem to be. Even the kinds native to New England are bettor and 
stronger if covered to exclude severe frost. A covering of fine hay, a few inches of leaves, or two or three 
inches of strawy manure, as it comes from the horse stables, put over the bulbs in autumn, will bo very 
useful as a protection. The manure will be doubly beneficial, for it will serve both as a fertilizer and to 
keep out frost. Some of the stronger growing Lilies are well suited to planting among shrubbery. 
A most important item in the growing of all Lilies is the combination of good drainage with plenty of 
moisture. They require much moisture during the blooming season; still, a soil not well drained seldom 
seems to suit them. Much good can be done in the adding of sand, leaf-mold or turf loam (which is always 
good for the Lily), but if good drainage is not given many species will not thrive. 
Lilies often thrive much better the second year after planting, for the reason that if they are not taken 
fresh from the ground, some or all of the roots have been lost, or dried, and their scales, "also, may have 
become shriveled. This is too often the case with imported or store bulbs if the storing has not been in a 
cellar and in soil. Lilies imported in their natural soil, or in damp sphagnum, not allowed to become dry, 
aud not. deprived of their roots, are much more likely to bloom the first year. In purchasing Lilies, it is 
well to insist upon having only firm and solid bulbs. If they have been wintered in a cellar, it should have 
been in sand or loam, in tight boxes, so that the bulbs could not have shrunken or dried. Bulbs wintered 
in this way are often about as solid as when wintered in the ground. They may be better than if set in the 
ground in autumn aud exposed to the rains, which often injure late-planted bulbs. 
The best time to set Lilies is in autumn, it is generally believed, but I have had quite as good success 
with spring setting. If they are taken fresh from the nursery before they have advanced too far in growth, 
they do nicely. The reason why so many believe that Lilies should be set only in autumn is because the 
main supply has been from store bulbs. Few dealers keep their stocks in the ground, and when stocks 
