tained the trace elements. Wood ashes supply potash: the in- 
creased substance and color being readily noted. Preferred 
practice is to work most of the fertilizer into the ground 
the year before the lily bulbs are planted. 
Remove and burn withered flowers. Allowing lilies’ to 
set seed reduces next year's blooms. Many years ago | tried 
this with L. regale. Bulbs that bore an average of 25 blooms 
were allowed to set seed, and next year produced about 15 
blooms. When dug that Fall the bulbs were about an inch in 
circumference smaller; while neighboring bulbs that had the 
blooms removed immediately on opening showed a satisfactory 
increase in size. Cutting the flowers so that much of the 
foliage is removed has the same effect. If cut when the 
first buds start to open perhaps a third of the stalk can 
be taken without serious damage: but if you remove all the 
Paunoyou can figure on sacrificing the bulb. 
Do not plant a lily where another one has failed. Do not 
transplant a lily that is doing well. Lilies that multiply 
rapidly, like pardalinum, should be dug once in three or 
four years for division. If you think others are depleting 
the soil, it is better to remove the soil over the bulb and 
replace with rich compost without disturbing the roots. 
GET THEM YOUNG 
Some lilies are difficult to establish. Humboldtii, 
Szovitsianum (and monadelphum), testaceum and Washington- 
ianum are especially so and | recommend that small bulbs 
be purchased. If an unexpected bud appears, remove it. | 
would like to advise that procedure for lilies just moved: 
but | know it would be useless. Long range results would be 
much more satisfactory if the bulb were allowed the first 
season to establish itself without being required to pro- 
duce flowers and perhaps seed. 
Remember that a lily bulb forms the buds a year before 
they open as flowers. If the bulb that you purchased was 
thriving in a nursery row last Summer at blooming time, it 
gauged its ability to bloom next season and set buds accord- 
ingly. Then if it is dug, kept out of the ground for days-- 
Or weeks--before being planted in an alien soil, it has sev- 
€ral possible courses of action. At best it gets rooted be- 
fore Spring growth requires feeding and produces the flowers 
that you hope for. It may not make top growth at all, using 
the season to get rooted. It may abort the entire flower 
Stalk before blooming time and live to bear flowers in a 
year or two. Some of the buds may be blasted, thus reducing 
the effort required so that the plant produces a part crop. 
At the worst it may produce the full head of flowers and ex- 
pend the bulb making good on last season's committments, 
in which case you lose a bulb. 
