SNOWFLAKES
Leucojum
The Leucojum, or Snowflake, ought to be more largely grown in the flower garden or in grass, where its white, drooping bells look charming. The Spring Snowflake, L. vernum, is among the most beautiful with its large, handsome white flowers, each tipped with a green spot on each outer segment. There are several forms, that sold as carpaticum being early and pretty. There are also yellow-spotted forms which are of much beauty, and one of these seems to be the true carpaticum. Miss Hope's variety is the latest Spring Snowflake. The Summer Snowflake is less pleasing because of its habit, but it is a pretty and useful flower. There are two or three varieties of L. æstivum, one known as L. pulchellum being a little earlier than the other L. æstivum and having smaller flowers. The autumn Snowflake, L. autumnale or Acis autumnalis, is an exquisite little bulb with white blossoms, tinged with rose. It flowers in July or August and likes a sandy soil; the others will grow in any good compost. Plant about two inches deep, and as soon as they can be procured.
CHAPTER IX
HARDY BULBS
Liliums — Liliums in Pots — Malvastrum — Merenderas — Millas — Narcissi — Narcissi in Pots
Liliums
The Lily is the noblest of bulbous plants, and it is to be regretted that its cultivation often presents insuperable difficulties in many gardens. There are a few species which can be grown almost anywhere, it is true, but the greater number require special conditions of soil or climate. As this noble plant may form the subject of a separate work in this series, I shall only give a brief summary of the leading species and their requirements for the benefit of the general reader.
The easiest to grow in the garden are those which are satisfied with ordinary, well-dug soil, with the addition of some leaf-soil, if it is heavy, or some loam, if light. This class comprises the favourite candidum, the Madonna Lily, of which there are several varieties, such as one with a golden margin to the leaves; spicatum, also known as flore pleno, which has partly double flowers; and striatum, with flowers streaked purple outside. There are also chalcedonicum, with scarlet "Turk's-cap" flowers and its variety Heldreichii; the dark-hued hybrid dalhansoni; bulbiferum; the pretty concolor, with its forms Coridion and pulchellum; the brilliant croceum; dauricum, known as umbellatum in some gardens; the pretty elegans (syn. thunbergianum); the good yellow Hansoni; and that comparatively new Lily, Henryi. In this soil, also, can be grown the exquisite longiflorum, with its trumpet-shaped blooms, and its varieties giganteum, eximium (Wilsoni of some), foliis albo-marginatus, Takesima, Harrisii, and præcox. The hybrid Marhan thrives in the same soil, as also do the typical Martagon; the pretty pomponium; the strongly-scented pyrenaicum; and the ever popular speciosum (syn. lancifolium), of which there are so many good varieties, such as album Krætzeri, album novum, Melpomene, roseum superbum, cruentum and punctatum. To these may be added the pretty tenuifolium; the well-known tigrinum, with its forms splendens, Fortunei, and fl. A selection of varieties of L. elegans would include such as Alice Wilson, alutaceum, atrosanguineum, aurantiacum, Batemani, often called L. Batemanniæ, Horsmanni, Flore-pleno, Prince of Orange, Van Houttei, and Wilsoni. There are also a number of varieties of umbellatum.
The following Lilies require a deep and well-dug friable loam, lightened with sand and leaf-soil if of a clayey nature:—