[PDF]Lilies A

EDITED BY

R. HOOPER PEARSON
MANAGING EDITOR
OF THE GARDENERS'^
CHRONICLE

A LIST OF VOLUMES
IN THE SERIES IS
GIVEN ON THE NEXT
PAGE



T*resent-Day (gardening


List of Volumes in the Series.


1. SWEET PEAS. By Horace J. Wright, late Secre-

tary and Chairman of the National Sweet Pea Society.
With Chapter on “Sweet Peas for Exhibition” by Thos.
Stkvrnson.

2. PANSIES, VIOLAS, AND VIOLETS. By William

CuTHBERTSON, J.P., and R. Hooper Pearson.

3. ROOT AND STEM VEGETABLES. By Alexander

Dean, Chairman of the National Vegetable Society.

4. DAFFODILS. By the Rev. J. Jacob, Secretary of

the Midland Daffodil Society, with Preface by the Rev. W.
Wilks, M.A., Secretary of the Royal Horticultural Society.

5. ORCHIDS. By James O’Brien, V.M.H., Secretary

of the Orchid Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society.

6 . CARNATIONS AND PINKS. By T. H. CoOK, Head

Gardener to Queen Alexandra at Sandringham ; James
Douglas, V.M.H. ; and J. F. M'Leod, Head Gardener to
Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan.

7. RHODODENDRONS AND AZALEAS. {The first

popular volujue published on this subject.) By Wii.liam
Watson, A.L.S., Curator of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,
with Preface by Freo. W. Mooke, M.A., A.L.S., V.M.H.

8 . LILIES. By A. Grove, F.L.S., with Preface by

li. J. Elwks, F.R.S.

9. APPLES AND PEARS. By George Bunyard,

V.M.H., Chairman of Fruit and Vegetable Committee of Royal
Horticultural Society.

10. RO.SES. By H. R. Darlington, Member of Council

of National Ruse Society.

11. IRISES. By W. Rickatson Dykes, M.A.

These will be followed by volumes on Annuals,
Chrysanthemums, Dahlias, Paeonies, Primulas, Cucum-
bers, Melons, Hardy Herbaceous Plants, Tomatoes,
Bulbous Plants, Peaches and Nectarines, Vines, Rock
Plants, Stove and Greenhouse Plants, &c.




PLATE I {Frontispiece)

L. AURATUM VAR. PLATYPHYLLUM
(MACRANTHUM)

(See pp. 29, 45.)






V






PREFACE


Thirty years have elapsed since I published a Monograph
of the Genus Lilium, which has long been out of print,
and, as Mr. Grove says, was too much of an ouvrage de luxe
to be accessible to the general public. Since then con-
siderable numbers of new species and varieties have been
discovered, most of them in Western China, and as many
of these are but little known and others not yet introduced,
Mr. Grove’s account of those that are in cultivation will
be of great value to present-day gardeners.

Though his studies on the genus have been carried on
in a very quiet and unostentatious manner, I can say with
truth that neither the late Max Leichtlin nor Mr. G. F.
Wilson, the two great Lily growers of the past, knew as
much about the cultivation of Lilies as he does ; and, con-
sidering the unfavourable conditions of his garden on the
chalk hills of Berkshire, the success which he has attained
in growing many of the rarer or more delicate species is
truly remarkable.

There is no genus of bulbous plants which has proved
so difficult to manage in cultivation, or in which so many
failures have to be recorded ; and if it was not for annual
importations from Japan, America, and the Continent, I
fear that most of the Lilies would disappear from the
gardens of those who are not prepared to grow them from
seed, or to give to them the same care and forethought
that Mr. Grove affords them, not only in their growing
season, but also whilst they are at rest.

Although the majority of Lilies are hardy enough to

vii



viii PREFACE

endure a considerable degree of frost when at rest; they
come with few exceptions from climates where the summers
are longer, warmer, and sunnier than ours, and they will
not endure frost when in full growth during May, or
such drought in the soil and atmosphere as we often ex-
perience in summer. Neither will the bulbs of many of
them endure, even in the best drained soils, a continuance
of cold rain in autumn without suffering and eventually
decaying. And when we look at a map and see that,
with one or two exceptions, Lilies are natives of latitudes
from 5 to 20 degrees south of England, it is surprising
that any one should expect them to survive the changes of
our climate for long, even if they were true perennials,
which some of them certainly are not.

But, with all these drawbacks, Lilies are so incompar-
ably beautiful, that every one who sees them wishes to
grow them ; and this book will do much to convince those
who have failed in the past that many of the difficulties
are not insuperable, especially for those who are fortunate
enough to live on soils free from lime in the southern
counties of England.

I have always said that if half the skill and care that
is devoted to growing Orchids was given to Lilies under
glass, it would be richly repaid ; but since the late Mr.
G. F. Wilson's death no one has apparently given much
attention to this form of cultivation. Only recently I have
found that, by potting them in almost pure oak leaf-mould,
such delicate and beautiful Lilies as L. philippinense and
L. japonicum — of which latter species the incorrect garden
name Krameri seems impossible to get rid of — may be suc-
cessfully bloomed for two or more seasons in succession,
though previously I had never been able to keep them alive.
If the peculiarities of each species are studied as carefully



PREFACE


IX


as Mr. Grove has studied them, I have little doubt that
we may see a great many more Lilies continue in health
and beauty. His directions for raising plants from seed
are good, but patience is necessary, for though L. tenuu
folium is an exception, most Lilies require four to six years
to become strong enough to flower, and they cannot be
hurried with manure.

Hybridisation has done less for this genus than for
many, and, with the exception of L. testaceum^ I do not
know a single genuine hybrid Lily which has ever become
common ; whilst some of those which have been raised
are distinctly inferior to both their parents in beauty, and
do not seem to have gained vigour of constitution from
crossing, as happens in so many other plants.

I feel certain that if collectors of Lilies in China and
Japan would take advantage of the parcel post, and supply
small parcels of carefully packed bulbs lifted during the
resting season, and sent via Siberia, we should avoid a
great many of the losses which now occur ; but the Japanese,
though masters of their art in most respects, fail in many
cases to understand the principles of good plant-packing,
and if the collectors in America would pay more attention
to quality than to quantity, it is probable that they would
benefit as much as we should.

With regard to nomenclature, it is evident that until
much more is known of the recent discoveries in China,
and on the Pacific Coast of North America, the correct
names and positions of several species or varieties cannot
be settled, and it is to be hoped that Mr. Grove may sooner
or later give us a more elaborate work on the subject.

H. J. ELWES.


COLXSBORNX.



CONTENTS


Introduction

CHAP.

I. Lilies in Legend, Books, and History

II. General Culture in Great Britain
HI. Management of Californian Lilies

IV. Management of Japanese Lilies .

V. The Planting of Lily Bulbs

VI. Shrubs for Association with Lilies

VII. Raising Lilies from Seed

III. Hybrid Lilies and Varieties

IX. Lilies in Pots ......

X. Half-Hardy and Sub-Tropical Lilies .

XI. Diseases .......

XII. Insects and Pests

XIII. Easily-Grown Lilies ....

XIV, The more Difficult Lilies

XV. Lilies not in Cultivation


PAGE

I

3

7

12

i 6

19

21

23

27

31

33

35

38

40

78

108


Appendix


X


112



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE

I. L. AURATUM VAR. PLATYPHYLLUM (mACRANTHUM)

Frontispiece


11 . L. MYRIOPHYLLUM 1 4

III. L. SPECIOSUM VAR. KrAETZERI 26

IV. L. Maximowiczii 42

V. L. CANDIDUM 58

VI. L. MONADELPHUM VAR. SZOVITZIANUM ... 74

VII. L. JAPONICUM (usually KNOWN IN GARDENS AS

L. Kramerj) 90

VIII. L. Parryi 104




LILIES

INTRODUCTION

The family of true Lilies, by which we mean members
of the genus Lilium, is a comparatively small one, being
represented by about seventy known species and nearly
twice as many varieties.

Although three countries — China, Japan, and California
— provide between them considerably more than half the
number known, the genus is distributed over almost the
whole of the temperate regions of both hemispheres, and
while five species are known in sub-tropical countries, there
is no record of any true Lily having been found in the
Southern Hemisphere.

Most species actually in cultivation come from Japan,
to which country about fifteen are referred ; North America
accounts for seventeen, of which the Western States provide
the greater number ; in Europe eight species are known ;
whilst from the Himalayas there are four, Siberia three, and
Burma four.

Though many of them are not yet in cultivation,
nineteen species are peculiar to China, most of them
hailing from the vast mountainous region in Central and
Western China which is such a veritable paradise to the
botanist, and the surface of which up to the present seems
only to have been scratched as far as the discovery of new

A



2 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING


species of plants is concerned ; therefore we may reason-
ably expect the number of Lilies emanating from there
and Tibet to be increased from time to time.

With the possible exception of L. Martagon, no Lily is
indigenous to the British Isles, and though the Madonna **
Lily has come to be regarded by the average Englishman
as a native plant, it does not seem to have found its way to
this country till the early part of the seventeenth century.

The present-day classification of Lilies is due to Mr.
J. G. Baker, who divides the species into five sections
as follows : —

Martagon. | Isolirion. | Eulirion. | Archelirion. | Cardiocrinum.

and in each section there are Lilies which all but the most
enthusiastic cultivators will be well advised to let alone.

Martagon is the largest section and takes in all Lilies
which have their blooms much recurved and which are
generally known as Turk's Caps," such as

chalcedonicum. | pardalinum. 1 pomponium.

as well as a few sorts the flowers of which are not re-
curved so much, L, canadense, for instance.

In the Eulirion group, the flowers are true Lilies,
trumpet shaped, with the petals reflexed at the tips, and this
section includes such well-known plants as L. candidum and
L. Brownii among others.

In the Archelirion section we find flowers that are as a
rule large and more or less open, and auratum is a good
example of this small sub-genus, all the members of which
hail from Japan or China.

Lilies having upright flowers go to form the Isolirion
section, and familiar examples of this are the Orange Lily,
. croceum, and the little Chinese L. concolor.



LILIES IN LEGEND 3

The smallest group, and at the same time the most
distinct, is Cardiocrinum, consisting of only three species —
L. giganteum, L. cordifolium, and L. mirabile.

A complete list of the species and varieties, with their places
in the groups, is given in the Appendix.


CHAPTER I

LILIES IN LEGEND, BOOKS, AND HISTORY

Torn by his father Jupiter from the flowing breast of Alcmena, his earthly
mother, and borne through the heavens to the bosom of the goddess Juno, so that,
son of a mortal woman, he may be nurtured by Immortal and become himself a
god, the boy Hercules, his mouth o’er full of milk, lets fall the drops which
form the Milky Way and star the earth with Lilies.”

Such is the classical fable of the birth of what must
almost certainly be one of the very oldest plants on earth,
with its beginnings wrapt in the mists of countless ages ;
sung of from the days of Solomon onwards, surely no
flower can have figured in legend and verse more often
than the Lily, and though in the twentieth century we
cannot identify the Lilies of the ancients, or even be sure
they were true Lilies, there is a great fascination in the idea
— by no means far fetched — that the Lily of Scriptural lore
and the Madonna Lily of more modern times, to be found
at the present day growing wild in Syria and Palestine,
are one and the same plant.

Dropping us, as is his wont, from the clouds of mythi-
cal licence to more tangible ground, the student of Lily lore
will tell us that the literary history of the subject is ex-
tensive if somewhat diffuse ; but with the exception perhaps



4 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING

of Parkinson, who gives the Lily pride of place, and in his
quaint way minutely describes a round dozen sorts in the
Paradisus (1629), we need go no further back than 1774,
when, in the Systcma Plantarum, Linna3us gave a descrip-
tion of nine species.

At that time no Oriental Lilies seem to have been known
to Linnaeus, and it remained for the travellers Thunberg,
about twenty years afterwards, and SieboJd, early in the
nineteenth century, to publish particulars of species they
each found in Japan or elsewhere ; between them they
more than doubled the number of Lilies on Linnaeus' list,
and while further species were discovered and recorded
from time to time by others, no serious attempt at sys-
tematic classification seems to have been made till early
Victorian times, when a Belgian, M. Spae, published a clear
and distinct memoir on the genus (1847), which by that
time had increased to about forty-four species. Spae's
book remained the standard work of reference on the
subject for thirty years.

During the seventies, Lilies had their full share in the
increasing interest shown in horticulture generally, and
between 1870 and 1880 there was a veritable deluge of
literature on the subject, numerous papers, articles, and
Notes" being published in the transactions of various
societies or in horticultural journals in England, France,
Germany, and America, and while much that was written at
that time has since proved to be inaccurate, there remains
a mass of information of incalculable use to the grower
of Lilies.

In 1874 Mr. Baker published the scientific classification
of the genus to which all Lilies are now referred, and which
no doubt cleared the way for Mr. H, J. Elwes' critical



HISTORY OF LILIES


5

Monograph on Lilies (1880), the modern standard work on
the subject, but one that is so essentially an edition do luxe
in the best sense of the term, that it is beyond the reach of
the large mass of horticultural folk, for whom, in fact, there
was no moderately priced and at the same time really prac-
tical and concise book on Lilies till 1905, when Mr. W.
Goldring published the Booi of the Lily^ a small volume
packed with practical detail obviously the outcome of long
and first-hand experience.

As far as their cultivation in the gardens of Great
Britain is concerned, the history of Lilies goes no further
back than the publication of Parkinson's ParadisuSy for
though they are mentioned often enough before his day,
and possibly have been in cultivation as long as gardens
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