Host Of Lilies And Daylilies: This year in our garden we had a display of spring bulbs began on April 8 and lasted until the second week of June.
Later in the season came the charming English iris, Japanese iris, the many flowering onions (seven different species), a host of lilies and daylilies, gladiolus of all colors, and for one year at least, the charming I hardy cyclamen. And in pots gathered on the terrace and out around! the sundial, the awesome devil's tongue, wand flowers from Africa,] calla lilies, and a magnificent, white lily-of-the-Nile.
Finally there are late-blooming lilies, autumn crocus (see page] 42), and for Christmas, Amaryllis and all the wonderful forced bulbs j of winter.
After 1900 and to this day, every writer of any depth on the subject of these shade-loving perennials starts out by saying "Hostas or plantain lilies (after their resemblance to this other member of the lily family) or funkias . . .' So even today, some 85 years later, the name funkia persists. And I'd dearly love to know why Funck lost to Host. What dastardly deed did he do to lose his namesake and what noble thing did he do to hang on so long?See Also The Lilies Bloomed:Some years ago I remembered reading an article in Flower cu Garden (April, 1979) which reported that Joseph Dayton had succes fully planted water lilies in two 12-gallon sauerkraut crocks (1 inches wide by 24 inches deep). The lilies were planted in 8-inch cl< pots, and they bloomed, each plant bearing 4 to 6 flowers. I decide to try it for myself.
I bought a tub, washed it out carefully, and let it sit in the sun f a few days.
The little water garden was a success. The lilies bloomed, t spike rush grew into a healthy fountain of green tipped with brov non-flowering buds, and the dwarf cyperus shot up 2 1/2 foot stei topped with a Fan of leaves.
Once autumn arrives and temperatures start to fall, the wal garden should be emptied until the following spring. Hardy wai lilies will survive outside if the water above them never freezes sol: But in a tub exposed to the weather this will be the natural order things.
If you wish, the lilies can be kept over the winter in a need not be kept in water. The papyrus can be a happy houseplant if kept warm (62 to 80°F.), in maxium light, and moist soil. As to the >pike rush, I do not know, but I suspect it, too, will keep indoors if given plenty of light and at least six weeks of temperatures averaging .
On The Other Hand See Lilies Features:Third Sunday in June; Nola (near Naples). The Feast of the Lilies features a gay procession of huge artificial lilies.
July 11-15; Palermo. The Feast of Santa Rosalia, patroness of the Sicilian metropolis, culminates with an earnest and colorful pilgrimage to the saint's shrine on lofty Monte Pellegrino. The whole city is temporarily absorbed in its saint-with-the-lovely-name.
In the North, you can treat tropical lilies as annuals and replace them every garden season or bring them into a greenhouse pool. In the South where winters are Zone 10, and temperatures rarely fall below 30°F., they can be left out all year.
The hardy lilies are stored over winter in a cool Basement where temperatures hold between 40° to 50°F. In the fall before a hard freeze, lift the lily pots from the pool, drain well, and store them leaves and all by covering with damp peat moss so they will not dry out over the winter. In the spring, empty the rhizome from the pot, clean it off, remove any suckers—small, yellow leaves—and repot as you did the year before. Hardy lilies may only be left outside in a pond deep enough that the ice line is above the tuber and the pot.
Tropical water plants can be held over in the greenhouse or j sunporch.
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