ON HARDY LILIES.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2071, 13 October 1880, Page 3

ON HARDY LILIES.

No more beautiful tribe of plants, whether hardy or tender, can be named than the genus lilium. Their superb, pure, and pleasing colors, their stately and foi the most part refined aspect, render them invaluable decorative plants. Their cultural requirements are in most cases simple—they succeed well in any good garden soil, but best in that which is rich, deep, and well drained. The proper time to plant the roots is as soon as the growth is ripe—that is, when the stems die down. Very usually they are kept over winter in a dry state, and planted in the spring, where they are to grow and flower ; but this is an evil practice, leading to the weakening of the bulbs, and eventually, if continued year after year, causing the death even of the most vigorous sorts. When the roots are lifted with the view of being replanted, let any fresh, healthy scales of any variety that happens to be scarce, be carefully kept and planted thickly in sandy soil. In the course of three years these will form excellent flowering roots. Lilies delight in high culture. They will take almost any amount of manure—cow manure being the best. Some species are very liable to suffer from damp in winter. A good plan to prevent loss in this way is to cover the surface of the ground with exhausted [tan jbark or coal cinders to the depth of two or three inches, to absorb and throw off excessive wet. Nearly all the species and varieties are fond of peaty oompostj but good, well decomposed manure suits all of them fully better, and is more easily obtained than the best quality of peat. It is the custom of some cultivators never to disturb their lilies after planting them till they show signs of falling off in vigor. Our practice and advice is to lift and re-plant every second year ; and if our land were very light and hungry we should do so every year, as soon as the first indications of decay manifested themselves. Never leave lifting and re-planting of stock in hand longer than this ; shop or imported roots you can only plant when you get them in possession ; but if the weather and condition of the soil are favorable, plant them without delay when obtained. The most favorable weather for planting is fair and sunny, and the best condition of the soil is when it is so dry that it will not clog the tools. The above remarks have been based on the requirements of such species and varieties as will succeed well in the open borders. There are many sorts which will not succeed without very special conditions ; but these we have at present excluded from our selection, and also from any consideration in our cultural remarks. In a general way, lilies are benefited by partial shade and shelter in spring and early summer. Shelter, especially from cutting east winds and spring frosts, is indispensable to protect the young growth. Hence the advantage of planting them in the bays or openings on the margins of beds or borders of shrubs, where their young growths will receive such open protection as they need. The following selection includes the hardiest, most distinct and beautiful sorts. Lilium bulbiforum. —Of this speoies'.there are many varieties distinguished by differences in colour, and also somewhat by differences in stature and the size of the individual flowers. All are beautiful, and the type is popularly known as the 1 orange lily.’ L. candidum. —This is the common white lily, one of the handsomest flowers of June and July. It requires a little shade and shelter to bring it to perfection, the foliage being very apt to bo destroyed in spring by wind or frost, and to be scorched in summer before the flowers become fully developed. There are some varieties of this species, but we consider the ordinary pure white form the most desirable. The double-flowered variety has the merit of more durable flowers, but the beautiful symmetry is somewhat marred bj the doubling process. L. martagon. —This is the true “Turk’s cap” lily, so called on account of the resemblance of the fully expanded flowers to the form of the turban of the Turk. L. chalcedonioum, the so-called scarlet martagon, is not really a form of the true martagon, but a true species and one of the most beautiful, certainly unequalled in the brilliancy of color, which is vermillion scarlet of the richest possible hue. The martogons being all rather tall growing species, should have back-ground positions. L. Longiflorum.—Of this there are sevorol varieties, all being dwarf growers. The flowers are white, very long in the tube, and very handsome.

L. tigrinum.—This is the common “ tiger lily,” of which there are many varieties, including a double-flowered one which should be in every garden. It is in all its forms one of the hardest and most robust of species. All the forms of L. speoiosum succeed well in the open ground, though generally grown in pots in frame or greenhouses. When attempted out of doors they should be placed where they can be sheltered as they may require in spring.