For the last three months cut blossoms of Lilium Speciosum have decorated our table in the centre of London, and have afforded our friends and us real delight, creating subject for discussion at the dinner-table such as we have never known in connection with any other cut flowers.
Perhaps this has arisen from the fact that the floral decorations consisted of flowers of one botanical group only, making a truly consistent nosegay, and creating from its very uniqueness fit subject for special questionings and interest. Of course in the group there were several colours. The Speciosum Album and the varieties of white, the Speciosum Roseum with its varieties of lovely rose-colour, and finally the deep and rich Speciosum Melpomone. Nothing in the way of table decoration could be more æsthetic and cheerful-looking than an arrangement of such blossoms, in which we find real white mingled with a lovely purple red, and with nothing but the right gradations of colour between.
In the days of old it was the custom to group flowers of every conceivable colour—reds, blues, pinks, yellow, and others; but now we know better, two colours or three being the most effective scheme for table or bouquet effect, and in all our experience we have never found any general appearance more pleasing than that of our group of Lilium Speciosum.
One of the greatest testimonies to the value of these flowers is that the buds will develop and open into blossoms of their natural size while in water in a close room of a London square, and another reason for their value is that they last two or three weeks if attended to about every other day, that is, longer than any other cut flower of our cultivation.
A month ago we took up to town a bunch of Lilium Speciosum from our little country garden to garnish the dinner-table of a well-known doctor on the day of his golden wedding. There were, we were told, many other groups of flowers sent by friends for such an interesting occasion, but although many were from hot-houses, and some were valuable orchids, the group of Lilium Speciosum, so easy and so inexpensive to rear, had the place of honour, was admired the most, and lasted the longest number of days.
But we must not forget to mention an incident which happened to us while carrying this particular bunch through a City street from the railway terminus. We became conscious of a footstep close behind us, and felt that someone was keeping close to the flowers as they dangled at our side; but walking on unheeding, we presently relaxed our speed, when the follower made a semi-circle round the bouquet, watching it greedily until he faced it and us; then he turned and hastily disappeared, but not before we recognised in the London-dressed man a young and handsome Japanese! The flowers came from his distant land, and maybe reminded him of a home, a mother, or a sweetheart, and all so far away. We have ever since been ashamed of ourselves for not offering him one of the blossoms for a buttonhole.
The discouraging news given at the end of our first chapter led us to think: "Lilies will not grow in pots, but some kinds do fairly well in the open." "Lilies though suitable for pot plants are unsatisfactory for the flower-bed." Surely it is impossible to reconcile these two statements. Either one or both opinions must be incorrect. We must settle this point, and we can easily do so by growing lilies, both in pots and in the open ground.
We have before told you that we have ourselves grown eighty-seven distinct kinds of lilies. We have grown them in pots and in the open. We have obtained great satisfaction from both.
Few flowers are easier to grow in pots than lilies, and as they form probably the finest of all pot plants the culture of lilies in pots deserves more attention than it has heretofore received.
There are two ways of potting lilies, each of which has its advantages and uses, so we will describe both methods.