Would you like to have lilies in pots in your room? You can have them even if you do not possess a greenhouse. You can grow the lilies in the ground and transfer them to pots just before they begin to flower. For this purpose plant the bulbs in the open ground in rather lighter soil than you would if the lilies were to flower in the open. Place the bulbs about four inches deep. You need not remove the plant until the flower-buds are nearly fully developed. Then take up the lily with the surrounding earth, place it in a big pot, drench it with water, and leave it in a cool, shady place for three days. Then give it a good dose of liquid manure. You may then take it into your room, and it will flower as though nothing had troubled the tranquillity of its existence.
Not all lilies are suitable for this treatment; only those species which will grow in light soils should be used for this purpose. L. Longiflorum, L. Auratum, L. Speciosum, and L. Rubellum are most suitable for this form of culture.
About the beginning of November all your lilies in pots will have flowered and died down. What are you to do with them now?
Shake the bulbs out of the pots; examine them; remove any off-shoots; do not cut off the roots; wash them in lime-water and re-pot without delay.
Lilies do not rest during the winter. The pots should be kept in a place which is not too wet. The pots must not be kept too dry, but an occasional watering should be administered.
We append a list of the lilies, giving the exact composition of the soil in which we have grown them best, both in the open air and in pots. An asterisk is affixed to the most desirable species.
Grown in a mixture of one part peat, two parts leaf-mould, and a good sprinkling of sand:
| *1. | L. Longiflorum. |
| 2. | L. Formosanum. |
| *3. | L. Auratum. |
| *4. | L. Speciosum. |
| *5. | L. Krameri. |
| 6. | L. Rubellum. |
| 7. | L. Henryi. |
| 8. | L. Medeoloides. |
Grown in a mixture of equal parts of peat and leaf-mould, with plenty of sand:
| *9. | L. Leichtlini. |
| 10. | L. Maximowiczi. |
| 11. | L. Catesbæi. |
| 12. | L. Wallacei. |
| *13. | L. Canadense. |
| *14. | L. Parvum. |
| *15. | L. Maritimum. |
| *16. | L. Superbum. |
| *17. | L. Roezlii. |
| *18. | L. Pardalinum. |
| 19. | L. Californicum. |