Lily Descriptions and Prices (Continued) 
garden use than the Croft. Neither variety is entirely 
hardy. Their pure white flowers can be very attrac- 
tive in special settings. They are too formal and too 
short to fit in well in most gardens. 
per 1000, 6-7'', $160.00; 7-8’’, $250.00; 8-9’', $320.00 
L. ‘‘Lillian Cummings’’—One of the best of Miss 
Preston’s introductions, this hybrid of L. Davidii 
and L. Elegans-Dauricum bears grenadine-red flow- 
ers on three to five foot stems. A most worth-while 
garden plant, it is vigorous and disease-free and of 
easy culture. Plant the bulbs four to six inches deep 
in either full sun or partial shade. This lily divides 
and increases rapidly and should be lifted and 
separated when the bulbs become crowded. Early 
July flowering. 
per 1000, 4-5'', $240.00; 5-6'’, $300.00 
L. martagon album—The pure white form of the 
long cultivated Martagon lily that is so popular in 
Europe and England. The dainty waxy flowers are 
gracefully placed and form a symmetrical pyramid on 
4-foot stems. One of the most permanent of all 
lilies, once it is happily settled it will increase 
Mid-Century Hybrids 
This year, the fourth that we offer our Mid- 
Century Hybrid Lilies to you, we find ourselves at 
the turning point in their production. No longer are 
they the precious novelties of 1949 and 1950. We 
grow them now in quantity and our prices have been 
reduced to a level that puts them within the reach 
of all gardeners. Some of them are still too scarce 
and too high priced for the general catalog. Others, 
such as Enchantment, Pagoda and Valencia should 
be listed by all progressive seed-stores and bulb 
dealers. 
The Mid-Century Hybrids are, as is probably 
well-known by now, the result of a rather involved 
hybridization process that has included such popular 
lilies as L. tigrinum on the one side and hybrids 
between L. dauricum, L. concolor, L. aurantiacum 
and several others on the other side. Crossing and 
backcrossing these lilies and their offspring, we 
have evolved the strain which we introduce to the 
trade this year. From their parents these lilies have 
inherited the hardiness, the coloring and the resis- 
tance to disease that is to be found in at least some 
of them. The bulbil-bearing characteristic comes, 
for instance, not only from L. tigrinum but also from 
L. bulbiferum. The soft, pinkish-orange tones that 
some of these lilies display, must be ascribed to 
Page 44 
from year to year, forming larger and finer spikes. 
Our seedlings: have prospered extremely well and 
the bright yellow bulbs are sound and healthy. It 
should be planted not deeper than four inches ina 
well drained sunny location. Best grown among low 
evergreen shrubs. Martagon album is equally useful 
in the cottage garden or estate woodland. 
per 1000, 5-6’’, $400.00; 6-7’’, $500.00 
L. nepalense—We are very glad to be able to offer 
this rare and most beautiful lily from central and 
western Himalaya. The bell-shaped, pendant flowers 
are of a rich emerald-green color, stained deepest 
wine-purple on the inside. The largest specimen on 
our farms showed five flowers, well spaced on a four 
foot stem. It may be that mature specimens will be 
taller. This lily, which reputedly is not hardy, with- 
stood our coldest winter without difficulty. We be- 
lieve that its main requirement is not so much 
warmth as moisture, for test lots grown by us in 
entirely different locations did uniformly well. It 
produces bulblets on the long, wandering, under- 
ground part of the stems. Bulbs very small. 
each, $2.00 
the influence of L. tigrinum. The mahogany shades 
and the rich reds of CAMPFIRE and FIREFLAME 
come directly from L. umbellatum. 
Only one of these lilies, Enchantment, is pat- 
ented (U.S. Plant Patent 862). It may not be grown 
commercially without our express consent. No 
parallel can be drawn between these hybrids and any 
other group of lilies, ever introduced. The colors 
range from palest straw-yellow tq deepest maroon- 
red. The habit varies from pendant, as in the Tiger 
lily, to large outward-facing flowers, never before 
seen, to enormous, vividly colored, upright lilies. 
They also vary in flowering time, in height and in 
their rate of increase. With all these variants, we 
feel that some twenty different named varieties are 
not too many. 
The bulbs of all these lilies should be planted 
about four to six inches deep. They will thrive in 
any good, well-drained, porous garden soil, pre- 
ferably in the full sun. They can be increased very 
easily from scales, underground bulblets, by bulbils 
that form in the axils of the leaves and by ordinary, 
natural division of the bulb. We repeat that our ‘*En- 
chantment’’ is patented and that it may not be pro- 
pagated commercially without special license. 
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