The flowers vary in number from four to twenty. They are borne directly on the stem, without separate stalks. They are from six to nine inches long, of a pure white externally, slightly tinged with green near their attachments. Inside they are creamy white, with a broad streak of a rich claret colour down the centre of each petal. The pollen is yellow. The scent of this lily is intensely fragrant and almost overpowering. The seeds are flat and triangular with broad membranous wings.
The tips of the perianth are very slightly reflexed. In most drawings of this lily the flowers are made to look like those of L. Longiflorum, but they are quite different, being long and narrow, with very slightly reflexed petals and sepals.
It is often said in books that the bulb of this lily dies after once flowering, but this is not correct. The central part of the bulb does rot, but two or three small bulblets are left at its margin, which will in favourable circumstances grow and eventually flower.
This lily is a native of the Himalayas growing at a height of five to ten thousand feet above the sea-level.
The cultivation of this lily presents some difficulties, but surely it is worth while to give a little trouble to grow such a superb plant? We very rarely see it in cultivation, but in our garden it shall always find a home.
A plant growing in such a robust manner as this lily is not suitable for a flower-bed. It should be grown by itself in a shady nook. A clump of two or three looks very lovely, and it is possible to arrange matters so as to have at least one flowering spike every year.
It is not quite hardy, except in our southern counties, but it rarely needs more protection than a heap of bracken or other litter thrown over it in the winter.
If you wish to grow this lily, choose a suitable spot and dig out the earth to the depth of four feet. Fill in with a mixture of strong loam, decayed leaf mould and the remains of a hot-bed. To this add a little peat and plenty of sharp sand. The plant is a gross feeder and literally revels in “muck.” An occasional drenching with liquid manure is often very helpful. It requires large quantities of water during the growing period.
Resembling L. Giganteum so closely that formerly it was considered as a variety of that plant, but vastly inferior in every way, L. Cordifolium is the only other lily possessing heart-shaped leaves.
The bulb of L. Cordifolium is like that of L. Giganteum, but is scarcely a fourth the size.