Scientific American Supplement, No. 803, May 23, 1891 | Page 4

able to take bright and sweet flowers to the bedside of the sick, or to gratify the weary spirit of a confirmed invalid, confined through all the lovely spring time to the narrow limits of a dull room, with the fragrant flowers of the lily of the valley. I determined, therefore, that I would have an abundance of early lilies, and that they should not be costly, but simply produced at about the same expense as any other flowers, and I have been very successful in accomplishing this by very simple means. First of all, it is necessary to have the means of forcing, that is to say the required heat, which in my case is obtained from an early vinery. I have seen lilies forced by pushing the clumps in under the material for making a hot bed for early cucumbers, the clumps being drawn out, of course, as soon as the flowers had made a good start. They have then to be carefully and very gradually exposed to full light, but often, although fine heads of bloom may be produced in this way, the leaves will be few and poor.
My method is simply this: In the kitchen garden there is the old original bed of lilies of the valley in a corner certainly, but not a dark corner. This is the reservoir, as were, from whence the regular supply of heads for special cultivation is taken. This large bed is not neglected and left alone to take care of itself, but carefully manured with leaf mould and peat moss manure from the stable every year. Especially the vacant places made by taking out the heads for cultivation are thus filled up.
Then under the east wall another piece of ground is laid out and divided into four plots. When I first began to prepare for forcing I waited four years, and had one plot planted with divided heads each year. Clumps are taken up from the reserve bed and then shaken out and the heads separated, each with its little bunch of fibrous roots. They are then carefully planted in one of the plots about 4 in. or 5 in. apart, the ground having previously been made as light and rich as possible with plenty of leaf mould. I think the best time for doing this is in autumn, after the leaves have turned yellow and have rotted away; but frequently the operation has been delayed till spring, without much difference in the result.
Asparagus is usually transplanted in spring, and there is a wonderful affinity between the two plants, which, of course, belong to the same order. It was a long time to wait--four years--but I felt there was no use in being in too great a hurry, and every year the plants manifestly improved, and the buds swelled up nicely and looked more plump each winter when the leaves were gone. It must be remembered also that a nice crop of flowers could be gathered each year. When the fourth year came, the first plot was divided up into squares about 2 ft. each way, and taken up before any hard frost or snow had made their appearance, and put away on the floor of an unused stable. From the stable they are removed as required in the squares to the vinery, where they grow beautifully, not sending up merely fine heads of bloom without a vestige of leaf, but growing as they would in spring out of doors with a mass of foliage, among which one has to search for the spikes of flower, so precious for all sorts of purposes at that early season of the year.
The spikes produced in this way do not equal in thickness and substance of petal the flowers which come from more carefully prepared clumps imported from Berlin, but they are fine and strong, and above all most abundant. I can not only supply the house and small vases for the church, but also send away boxes of the flowers to friends at a distance, besides the many gifts which can be made to those who are ill or invalids. Few gifts at such a time are more acceptable than a fragrant nosegay of lily of the valley. In order to keep the supply of prepared roots ready year after year, a plot of ground has only to be planted each autumn, so that in the rotation of years it may be ready for forcing when its turn shall come.
As the season advances, as every one knows who has attempted to force the lily of the valley, much less time is taken in bringing the flowers to perfection under precisely the same circumstances as those in which the first sods are forced. In February or earlier the buds are more unwilling