Lillums.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 95, 25 April 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

Lillums.

The liliutn is one of the mosb beautiful and ornamental of flowering bulbs. The flowers are large and showy. There are aboub fifty differenb speciea of this plant under cultiva. tion as border and pob plants; but I will only deal with a few of the most popula r ones at preeent cultivated here. They are all more or lesa admirably adapted for cultivation in the mixed flower borders or jn, shrubberies. The period at which the different varieties flower here is from about the end of September till the end of March. Liliums may be increased by seed, but growing from seed is a slow process. Some of them, especially the lancifolium, rosium, rubrum, and tigrinum variebies,can be increased by little bulblete which form at the axils of the leaves on the flowering stalke. These little bulblets should be taken off just as the flower stalk is ripening off, about the beginning of April. These should at once be planted out in a bed in the open consisting of light rich soil. The n'rsb year they can be put into rows about nine inehea apart, and six apart in row. Immediately they receive moisture the • little bulblete will begin to push out roots, which will increase as the winter advances. These roots seem to increase and gajn strength till about the beginning of September. This will cause the bulbleks to push up a Btalk. The first season they will not flower, but will do so in the second. Id the second year the bulblete, or what now might be called bulbe, should be lifted and planted in the positions in which they are to grow permanently. Here they will flower the first season after planting, although they will not as yet be at fcheir full strength. The third season from the bulblet if treated kindly, theyshould giveafullhead of flowers. There is another method by which they can be increased, and that is lifting and dividing the old bulbs. Every old bulb under favourable circumstances should at least increase to two, if not more every year. The best time to lift and divide such is in May, when they are as near as possible at rest. Immediately after lifting and dividing they should be again replanted, as the longer they are kept out of the soil it will be at the expense of the following season's flowers. Of course nearly all the liliums can be lifted and kept out) of the soil in a dry state for a long period, and then planted, but the flower stalks will be weakened and the produce* of fldwerS on the spike will be less in number than on planba that have been moved and planted quickly. The soils which the lilium likes best is a rich, moist one. The way in which I have treated liliums for years is, every autumn while digging the bordere at the end of the season to place over each clump of bulbs a few forkeful of well-rotted manure. This causes them tocomeaway Ihofollowing spring with a very strong growth, and as they advance in growth they develop a larger number of flowers than where they are partly starved. Another great) con-, federation is that not unless it is absolutely necessary do I ever interfere or lift bulbs, letting them grow year after year in the same spot, only when the clump is getting too large I reduce the number, without interfering with those which are to remain. The above course always gives me plenty of vigour and abundance of flowers. The reason for not interfering with the bulbs is that I find here that they have little 1 or no rest. Immediately the moist weather of winter sets in the bulbs begin to push out their fleshy roots, a.nd these seem all winter to be collecting strength for next year's flowering. Lilium Auratum. —This is the goldenrayed lily of Japan. It is really a magnificent sight to see one of these in full flower. The flower, when first-claes, sometimes expands to a width of from ten to twelve inches, and the petals are beautifully marked and spotted. In the past there have been very few ot this magnificent lily brought to perfection here, although from time to time I have seen a few spikes with from four to six flowers. In the Middle Island, or about Christchurch, it succeeds splendidly. I have there seen flower stems carrying about twenty glorious flowers ab the same time. The soil which suits this lily here is a deep, rich, moist one, rather inclining to peat. It should also be planted in the shade, where it will only partly receive the sun's rays during the day. If possible, the ground above the bulbs should be shaded from the sun's rays during the summer with some other plant, or mulched. After the variety is once established, on no account should it ever bo lifted, only every autumn see thab it receives a liberal supply, of manure immediately over the bulbs.

Packing Oranges. A correspondent of one of the agricultural papers recently, gave seme of hie observations and ideas on the subject of the proper packing of oranges for market. It seems that in Florida all oranges are put through a ' sweating ' process before being boxed, and this is recommended as the only proper course for California orange growers to follow.

This ' sweating ' before packing may be all right, bub judging from the enormous percentage of fruit decaying while on the short trip from Florida ( to the Northern market, as related in an article published in this paper some time since, the degree of success attained is not remarkable. Inquiry among some of our largest fruit houses shows something of a diversity of opinion. While some say that it is impossible for them to tell whether the fruit has been put through a sweat, one of the most extensive firms say that their experience has been that the sweated fruit arrived here partially and in some cases wholly decayed, while the unsweated was in good condition. In view of this, argument would seem useless. The statement is further made that it " is a well known fact that apples will not keep if barrelled up immediately after picking.' Aβ a matter of fact, in the apple orchards ot Western New York, whence a large portion of the finest fruit marketed in the large cities of the Atlantic seaboard is derived, the apples are picked and packed at once under the trees, and are handled ac little as possible, the object being entirely to get them barrelled up as soon as practicable. With the object of proving the correctness of the sweating , theory, an experiment isenggested. "Pub a few freshly picked oranges in a tight box or tin pail for a few days," and mark the result. It is doubtful if any fruit, oranges or anything else, sweated or unsweated, would survive such an ordeal in this climate, but its value as a

test of the theory is simply nil. Oranges are seldom packed in tight boxes here, bub on the contrary the boards of the top and bottom are left at a distance from each other for the express purpose of facilitating the circulation of air and so preventing decay, and with success. In conclusion, as a matter of fact the sweating plan has been tried in Southern California, and has been largely discarded as a useless expenditure of time and labour, especially in view of the established fact that the unsweabed fruit has superior keeping qualities over the other.—American Press. The Chrysanthemum Show. The exhibition of chrysanthemums held last week in the Choral Hall was a magnificent success, not only in the number and quality of the flowers which was staged for competition, bub ib was also a splendid success financially. The Standing Committee is to be congratulated on the splendid arrangements which have broughb about this success, nob only the Committee bub also the different exhibitors, who must have been at a great deal of labour and expense to have grown such splendid specimen blooms as were staged. The flowers staged at the Show were an immense improvement on those which were exhibited last year. The competition was also much closer, and those which received honours were well deserved. The growth of the chrysanthemum seems to have taken firm hold of a number of amateur growers, and they must have well studied the requirements'of this plant, as in nearly all cases the blooms exhibited by amateurs were far superior to those staged in the all-comers' (or professional) class. This, in a measure, can be accounted tor by the fact thafr most of the amateurs give tlreir "whole time and attention to the cultivation of this plant only, whareas lha professional gardener has to devote his abtention to hundreds of different objects, which must of a necessity detract from his being able to attain such a standard as those who only attend to one plant. After seeing tne numbera which visiced this Show so continuously for three days, an outsider would have thought thab Auckland must be one of the foremost places for bheloveof horticulture, andthatwhen exhibitions of general horticulture were held they would be even more crowded than the lace Show, whereas the opposite has been the experience of the Horticultural So> ciety which has been started time after time in Auckland. Perhaps, after a few more get infected by the chrysanthemum fever, they will also take up a few other subjects of more general utility, and, in time, W6 may be able to get a Horticultural Society which will advance all branches of what ought to be the leading feature of this our young country, that of trying to improve the quantity, quality, and usefulness of all fruit, flowers, and vegetables, which grow so bountifully in our fine, genial climate. It is to be hoped that the present Chrysanthemum Society will go oii improving their position from year to year, and thab through them a more general taete for horticulture will be developed, which will cause this part of New Zealand to take the firsfi place in all matters appertaining to the garden.