Lilium Odorum.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 18, 2 November 1910, Page 39

Lilium Odorum.

Whether L. odoruni is considered as a distinct species ora variety of L. Brownii there can be no doubt that it is a lovely plant and well worth taking a deal ot trouble about. In the writer's experience it is altogether easier to manage and keep than L. Brownii. True, L. odorum has not the delicate grace of L. Brownii, being altogether of a sturdier build, nor is the bloom so long in the trumpet, so beautifully proportioned, or so deeply coloured on the outside, but the plant has the advantage of quite commonly throwing up two or three stems, each of which often carries three flowers, and Occasionally four or five, whereas apparently L. Brownii can very seldom be coaxed into producing more than one or two stems with a solitary Hower on each: the latter Lily. too. is not generous in the production of off sets, while L. odorum or japonieum Colchesterense —to give the plant the name by which it is known at Kew-—is lavish, almost as much so indeed as L. Ilenryi, which is saying a great deal. As the photograph shows, the leaves are shorter and a good deal broader than in the typical plant; they clothe the stem from head to foot; while in the case of L. Brownii, as with some other Oriental species, the lower part of the stem is bare of leaves, for reasons that are obvious, though why L. odorum should be different in this respect is not clear. The plant sems to do better in a limefree mixture of leaf-mould, coarse grit and charcoal than in more earthy soils, and, like most stem-rooting lilies, benefits by the association of Andromedas or some other dwarf-growing shrub, the roots of which do not spread about and draw the moisture out of the groun I as much as do those of other dwarf shrubs, for instance, some of the Veronicas or the Daphnes. In tile writer’s experience, the luillis may be planted quite !> inches deep, and, if packed carefully with silver sand, they may be dug 'up as clean as a new-laid egg; bulbs imported from Japan, hiving had their roots prematurely shorn off in accordance with the detestable practice pursued by the bulb merchants of that country, do not usually survive after the

first season. but, in dying, they can usually be relic.l upon to leave behin 1 a number of oilsets. These should l>e nursed for a year or two before lieing allowed to take care of themselves, and will ge erally Hower in their third year. Once •started in the right way, the plant seems to be able to look after itself to better purpose than many of the lilies hailing from the East, and s. on grows a yard and more high, ’rhe Flowers of L. odorum are exquisitely fragrant, reminding one of L. \Vashingtonianum, and last fairly well if the plant blooms in a shady place. The specimen from which the photo graph was taken was beginning to go off, and lor that reason the blooms will he seen to be slightly shrivelled.—A. Grove, in the ‘‘Gardeners’ Chronicle.”