Chequered Lilies Fritillaries

Informaiton on chequered Lilies and fritillaries.  Includes planting and care tips for the Crown Imperial or Fritillaria imperialis.

Chequered Lilies Fritillaries

Chequered Lilies, or Fritillaries, are peculiarly marked pendant flowers, many having a chessboard pattern in brown-purple on greenishwhite or greenish yellow petals, some being tinged with rose or heliotrope. They are hardy, indeed Fritillaria meleagris is a native of our land. Plant in rich borders, in partial shade, from September to November, 2 or 3 inches deep. They are about 8 inches high.

Fritillaria imperialis

This family possesses a giant, for the Crown Imperial is Fritillaria imperialis. No spring border is com plete without this majestic red, apricot-orange, or yellow flower. Place the bulbs 4 inches deep, slanting them if the soil is naturally wet, or the locality a damp foggy one. Unless this precaution is observed, wet may lie in the hollow of the bulb and cause it to rot. For a showy bed or border, the plants may be only 8 inches apart, then the alternate ones given fresh quarters later on ; but 18 inches apart is not really an excessive distance for such handsome dignified subjects. They look noble when flanking the arches of the pergola, in tubs by the house steps, in pots or tubs in glass porches.

One bulb in a six-inch pot of extra depth will bloom, or bulbs of any quantity will thrive in split barrels, the roof-garden's giant border boxes or artificially built up beds, if set 6 inches each from each. Ordinary soil or compost will suffice, yet the Crown Imperial loves the presence of some peat.

The potted bulbs should be just covered by a couple of inches of coconut-fibre refuse, to keep them snug ; may inhabit frames, or the open garden so long as sheltered from frosts severe enough to destroy the roots within the pottery. When flowering is over, water should be gradually withheld, and then there must be a dry condition until it is time to repot for another season, or for merely starting the bulbs into fresh growth by top-dressing and beginning to water. But these second-year specimens ought not to be left out ; the genial atmosphere of a sunny frame or greenhouse is what they need to waken them to renewed life.

Of course, pots sunk to the rims out of doors, either in the ground or cinder beds, are greatly preferable to pots stood with their sides exposed ; but ornamental giant pots, garden vases of stone, etc., cannot be so used, and Crown Imperials furnish these excellently. Front garden beds of blue Violas, such as the good old-fashioned Blue Gown, round clumps of the Cottager's Orange Lily, with an outside edge of blue Crocuses a wide belt, not a narrow line and a centre mass of Crown Imperials, will provide beauty in both spring and summer. An improvement would be a few tawny Darwin Tulips, to give colour, with the Violas before the Lily flowers, and, of course, ' brown crimson ' and bronze varieties of German Iris, blue

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