Hortus Nitidissimis - Christophorus Jacobus Trew

Chapter 13, page: 171

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when their leaves drop. The offsets too, must be removed because they would exhaust the old bulbs if they remained. Still, one must not leave them unplanted (above ground) for long and must [then] not transplant them when their leaves have appeared above ground. Both actions would weaken the roots so severely that they could not flower the following summer.

The fourth species appears to be different from the common white lily only fortuitously, by their stalks being very broad. It has generally twice as many flowers on each stalk as the common species and is propagated in the same manner.

The fifth species is a great ornament of borders, because its lovely mottled (maculate) tepals show always in September. As it is a plant that stays green all winter, it gives, so van Kampen says, a pleasing show, because there are anyway only few beautiful flowers visible. For this reason it has been planted much in English gardens for some years. It is grown like the common species, but the bulb has always to be planted in fresh, light soil where it grows exceptionally well. But if manure is added to the soil, the bulb will decay in it as certain as in a wet and rich soil. The time to transplant these bulbs is the same as for the common species.

There are two species of the white lily with purple stripes of which one is far more beautifully mottled than the other. Both are raised from seed. They can be propagated in the same way as the common species, but must be planted in a dry and sandy soil that receives morning sun and that is mixed with some chalk rubble; because [with this regime] they will flower exceedingly beautiful. Their stripes too will be a deeper dark red than if they stood in a more nutrient-rich soil and their roots will multiply better as well.

The common orange lily is so well known that it is unnecessary to discuss it here. That species that is generally called the double orange lily differs from the common [lily] only by the fact that each flower includes two or three more [additional] tepals . This, however, is not constant, because it degenerates easily and changes [back] to the common species. One propagates them with the offsets of the old bulbs which it generates very frequently. Therefore the roots should never remain less than two years without being transplanted. The number of these offsets would weaken the plants too much and they would generate smaller and fewer flowers. They can be transplanted, whenever, from the start of August to the end of October. Because when their stalks have wilted, they do not shoot straight away like the white lilies but remain [quiescent] until February before they show again above the ground. One should, therefore, not transplant them later than in October. They grow in almost every soil and in every position, but best in a dry light soil and in an open location.

The bulbiferous fire lily flowers three weeks before the common species but proliferates more strongly. On the flower stalk it bears in leaf axils small bulbils that, if removed and planted, become within two years


 

*) L. s., page 126