VIGOROUS LILIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23691, 24 December 1938, Page 17

VIGOROUS LILIES

RED AND BORDER PLANTING Of late years much has been done t,o convince the amateur grower that the theory that all lilies are necessarily difficult and capricious plants is entirely unfounded. It is quite true that there are many lilies calculated to tax the skill of the most understanding cultivator, but at the same time there are others which, given normal conditions, are just as easily managed as is any hardy plant. Given good drainage, a very first essential where any lilies are concerned, a sweet and porous soil, and a reasonable supply of nutriment, they will succeed almost anywhere, and, once established, they may, and, indeed, should, be allowed to go on from strength to strength for many years on end. There is no doubt that it was the introduction of L. regale in pre-war days which has stimulated the revival of interest in lilies as garden plants. Hardy to a degree, the least temperamental of plants, easily raisable from seeds, and a trumpet of exceeding beauty, it is no wonder that it should have leapt to favour in what is, after all, a comparatively short space of time. Words cannot convey adequately a real sense of its incomparable beauty, for the white trumpets, each with yellow throat and flushed externally with crimson, have a lustrous sheen that is well-nigh indescribable. Like most lilies, it is strongly scented, but not objectionably so, and even when staged as a cut flower in a comparatively small room, its perfume is never so strong as to offend. It is, of course, the ease with which regale can be raised from seed that has made it available in such vast quantities that it may now be obtained at a price of just a few shillings a dozen. It will be some time before such small bulbs attain sufficient strength to support fullsized spikes, though they will flower from the first year onwards, and never at any stage of growth can regale be anything but a delight. Lilium umbellatum is one of the few lilies which are available in a range of varieties. Of garden origin itself, it has several colour forms, and amongst them Vermilion Brilliant, a real blood-crimson, it. is a strong and reliable grower; Invincible, a deep orange, shading to a reddish tone at the petal tips; Splendidum, vermilion-orange, and a rather later-flowerins variety than most; and Golden Fleece, a pure yellow, with red-tipped petals are just a few of the best of them. The tiger lilies are also something of a familv in themselves, and two of the best known, namely, L. tignnum splendens, and the taller L. tigrinum Fortunei. The latter is the tallest of all the tiger lilies, and can be grown to as much as six feet in height, the stems carrying as many as 50 blooms. Splendens, though not so tall, is more brilliant, a real fieryred, with richly spotted flowers, and it is endowed with a constitution that is to be envied. There is, too, an improved form of splendens, in Adam Brydon's variety. Even richer in colour and larger in bloom than is splendens itself, it is undoubtedly a lily of more than usual merit. DOUBLE-FLOWERED TIGER -JLY Perhaps the best of all the doubleflowered lilies? L. tigrinum flore pleno, has also its admirers, though in many eyes a double lily is not a thing of beauty, but a r nstrosity to be avoided at all costs. Each and all of the varieties so far mentioned are stem-rooters—that is, they form a second and distinct root system on the stem above the bulb, and are, therefore, appreciative of a soil which is not exposed to tht full force of the sun's rays during the summer months. Nevertheless, they can be grown in full sun, though honesty compels the statement that, where beds which have no respite from its rays have to be planted, it is really better to make a choice from amongst some of the European species, unless carpeting plants, which will shade the lower parts of the lily stems and the surface soil, are also planted. The delicate apricot testaceum, with its startling scarlet anthers, is one of the best of all lilies for very sunny positions, as is the white Madonna lily, L. candidum; the scarlet Turk's Cap, L. chalcedonicum, and others, including L. croceum. or aurantiacum, as it is now more correctly termed. This is the orange lily of cottage gardens, and is a fine subject. A Lovely Pair Two other lilies of very simple culture, but which really do require a little shade, are L. Hansoni and L. Henryi. In their case, it is not a definite dislike of sunshine, but the fact that the flowers will bleach badly. Both of a delicate yellow, they are amongst the most handsome of lilies; when really well grown, a spike of Hansoni, clad with its reflexed flowers, is indeed, a perfect picture. L. Henryi is one of the giants of the lily family, and it can, with good culture, be grown to a height of seven feet or more. In the north, however, it is not one of the best species, for, though perfectly hardy, it is just a trifle late in flowering, and apt to be cut by early frosts. It adds considerable beauty of foliage to its undoubtedly attractive speciosum-like flowers. One other species which must be mentioned wherever garden lilies are talked of it is the North American L. pardalinum. The Leopard lily, as it is also called, is in actual fact a swamp species, but so accommodating in nature that it can be grown, and grown well, in practically any soil. Few lilies increase more rapidly once established, and a goodly clump of it, with its yellow and red blooms, can never fail to be outstanding.—D.T.M. in Amateur Gardening.