The Lilium Auratum, or golden-rayed lily, is perhaps the most popular member of the genus. Its flowers are immense, indeed, it has the largest flowers of all the lilies. Of fine colour, producing many flowers on each stem, of great hardiness and of moderate ease to cultivate, it is not surprising that this lily should have attained its high popularity.
The Lilium Auratum is the most variable of all the lilies. There are eight named varieties. But even these are liable to considerable variation. If you were to plant one hundred bulbs, probably not more than three or four would be absolutely similar.
This extreme variability is very remarkable, when we remember that this lily is a wild flower, but rarely cultivated until recently either in Japan or elsewhere.
Vast numbers of the bulbs of this species are sent over to England from Japan every year, so that the species is by no means difficult to obtain. The bulbs are large, heavy, and if good, they are very compact. They are of a yellowish or purplish colour.
When you buy bulbs of L. Auratum, do not go for the mammoth bulbs. These are very rarely the best, though always the most expensive. Buy small, very heavy bulbs, and purchase them from November to January.
The shoots of L. Auratum begin to show about the middle of March, though this lily, as indeed is every other, is very variable in this respect. The season has a lot to do with it. In a warm rainy year the shoots often appear in February. The time when the bulb was planted and the depth at which it was placed also affect the time at which the lily shows above the soil.
When the shoot has appeared, it grows with great rapidity. We had a specimen in our garden which grew nine feet in twelve weeks! You could almost see it grow!
In connection with the shoots of lilies, there is an important point to notice, which is often overlooked and leads to misconception, unless it is fully appreciated. Lily shoots present extraordinary differences. The shoot of L. Umbellatum or L. Candidum, when it first appears, is like an exceedingly thick head of asparagus. From this many people imagine that if a lily shoot is not thick and solid, it is not going to produce a flower. This opinion is quite wrong. Some lilies, especially L. Speciosum, never start with a thick shoot, but show above ground as a thin lanky growth.
L. Auratum begins as a thin shoot, but it rapidly gains in size and strength if circumstances are favourable.
As in every other particular, L. Auratum is exceedingly variable in the height to which the stem grows. We have had in our garden bulbs from the same source, planted at the same time, in the same soil and position. They have all flowered well, yet some are only thirty inches high, while others tower to the height of nine feet!