CANDIDUM, CASCADE STRAIN 
The best improvement of our times on L. candidum, the Cascade 
Strain, has exceptionally uniform flowers with good texture and 
perfect form. It has more vigor than most older Madonna Lilies 
before planting or that bulbs be set out only in spring. 
Now we know the lily’s needs are simple and easily met 
in most gardens. They want sligntly acid, open, porous 
and well drained soil. Belying their delicate and often 
frail appearance, they require much more nourishment 
than we might expect: fertilizer rich in nitrogen, well 
rotted cow manure and similar substances. Lilies need 
sun and air, do not like much interference from other 
plants, and prefer to remain undisturbed for years. If 
they become crowded and cease to flower, they should be 
moved to a new location with room for expansion. I’ve 
moved lilies at almost any season, with a little care not 
to break the roots, and have seen no ill effects. Never 
plant a lily in a spot where other lilies have failed. 
New Breeding 
Scientists used to say that lilies would not cross with 
each other. The few experiments made seemed to prove 
that point. However, skeptics will persist, and from dab- 
blings in England, in France, in Germany, the word 
slowly got around that maybe lilies could be crossed after 
all. Each stride forward, each cross successfully achieved, 
gives material for further hybridization. It is thus from 
the work of many patient gardeners that threads are 
spun for a whole fabric of lilies of all colors, sizes and 
seasons, lilies that have no barriers to still greater re- 
finement and improvement. 
Crosses within a species, that is, between closely re- 
lated plants, can also add vigor—as long as these plants 
come from widely separated locations and grew in dif- 
ferent soil and climatic conditions. This interesting point 
can be illustrated by the case of L. candidum. Somehow, 
over the years, it became sterile, and only vegetative re- 
production could be used, which of course meant that dis- 
eases were perpetuated. Then in France a method was 
evolved to make the best forms of Madonna lily set seed. 
In this way a new strain was raised entirely free from 
bulb-borne pests and diseases. Thus was originated the 
now well-known Cascade Strain. 
Cascade Strain 
The Cascade Strain is now widely available for gar- 
dens. Highly disease-resistant, this kind has much im- 
proved white flowers with greater substance and wider 
petals than the older types. Despite their increased vigor, 
they resent deep planting as much as their weaker ances- 
tors did. Beyond that, no cultural precautions need be 
taken. They seem happy in almost any well drained, 
sunny location. 
The new vigor of these beautiful lilies has also made 
it possible to cross them with several other lilies. Colored 
Madonna lilies have been grown. Crossed with the “‘scar- 
let Martagon of Constantinople” (L. chalcedonicum), 
hybrids resulted that show vivid orange pollen instead of 
the usual yellow. New flower colors were originated by 
several breeders in New Zealand, England and this coun- 
try. More work needs to be done with colored Madonna 
lilies before they can be supplied for gardens, for the 
very prettiest are usually not the strongest. The biggest 
step, however, has already been taken. 
Then there are the native lilies, so different from L. 
candidum, and so difficult to adapt to cultivation—L. 
canadense and L. superbum of our eastern states; L. par- 
dalinum, the Panther lily, and L. humboldti of the Far 
West. Their beauty challenges any hybridizer. 
Luther Burbank, no less, gave his full attention to 
these. On his Santa Rosa, California, trial fields, Mr. 
Burbank raised over an acre of such hybrids, working 
on native lilies collected for him by the early explorers 
of the California and Oregon Coast ranges. L. pardalinum 
giganteum, the Sunset lily offered in so many catalogues 
today, is most likely a survival of Burbank’s original 
work. Then in 1919, the late Dr. David Griffiths of the 
United States Department of Agriculture repeated Bur- 
bank’s crosses with native lilies and raised fine hybrids. 
The beautifully shaped orange lily he called Shuksan 
shows every likelihood of remaining a popular variety. 
It is a worthy reminder of practical, yet scholarly, Dr. 
Griffiths, who did so much to popularize lilies in this 
country. 
Yet, to increase a named variety, we must use vegeta- 
tive reproduction. This can never give as good long-range 
results as seeds will. Here in Oregon, therefore, we re- 
peated the work of Burbank and Dr. Griffiths. From types 
they selected, instead of from true natives, we developed 
the Bellingham hybrids. They have markedly increased 
vigor and bid fair to become popular. 
