Lilium Auratum.
This is the King of Lilies, the ‘Golden Lily of Japan,’ and a native of that country. If you live within reach of Kew Gardens, you should go there in summer on purpose to see these splendid Lilies flowering amongst the Rhododendrons, where they have a moist, peaty soil for their roots. Mr. Wallace, of Colchester, the great authority on Lilies, says that the Auratum likes a strong soil, not too heavy, a good friable loam. It should be planted about three times its own depth, and, if you can possibly get it, in some moist sea-sand. It is one of the stem-rooting Lilies, and will sometimes get support through its flowering season from these roots only. But if it is to make good bulb growth, too, so as to come up and flower another year, it must have basal roots, and be planted directly it arrives from Japan. It requires a warm and sheltered situation, and in spring likes a mulching of well-rotted manure. Do not put it where it can be shaken by violent winds or scorched by a full midday sun. The best variety is Auratum Platyphyllum. There is one thing you must remember about all Lilies, and that is that they sometimes lie dormant for a year. We have often found they did this after removal. We once planned a fine display of the Madonna Lily in a corner of a new border, but though we bought dozens of bulbs and put them in, none came up. We thought they must have resented the move and died; but when we grubbed down amongst them to see what had happened, we found every bulb as plump and healthy as we could wish. They were having a year’s sleep.