LILIES - RHS Lily Group

well established. Therefore almost any work by her was likely to be sure of
success, so much so that this work was printed no fewer than three times, the
last reprint in1982 having eight colour plates. From the chart it is obvious that
her knowledge of cultivation was very good. Was her knowledge of the other
parameters fair or poor, or did she simply, in her flowing prose, know how to
write a good book?
1911 Lilies (W. Goldring)
With a foreword by none other than Elwes himself, this little publication in
The Present Day Garden Series does not rate particularly highly on the ‘charts’.
A. Grove, who was an electrical engineer by profession, was one of Elwes’
contemporaries and this book is full of most interesting snippets of information.
1925 The Lilies of Eastern Asia (E.H. Wilson)
This book written by none other than E.H. Wilson complete with ‘lily leg’
sustained when he fell off a cliff collecting Lilium regale, tells of his botanical
explorations of China. It is a large format work, sadly the illustrations are of only
fair quality, however the botanical information is excellent.
1928 Garden Cinderellas: how to grow lilies in the Garden (H.M. Fox)
1928 Lilies and Their Culture in North America (William N. Craig)
These two American books are relatively unknown on this side of the Atlantic.
Fortunately with the advent of the internet I was able to obtain copies of both
from the States within three days. Other books coming from British booksellers
are taking seven to ten days.
Garden Cinderellas was written by Helen Morganau Fox – an amateur
gardener who knew everybody who was anybody in the American lily world.
Her foreword was written by none other than E.H. Wilson. Her knowledge of
American lilies was profound.
The publication by William N. Craig followed a parallel course except that he
was an American nurseryman whose book gave lots of hints to the would-be
commercial grower. Craig had some experience of growing lilies in wet areas and
he advocated the planting of lily bulbs on their side to allow water to drain from
the scales. Craig also travelled extensively in the UK and he gives a useful insight
into British gardens through the eyes of an American.
1935 Lilies (H.P. Woodcock & J. Coutts)
This is the first attempt to provide a reasonable working monograph on the
culture of lilies. The book was produced with the co-operation of a Judge, H.
Drysdale-Woodcock, and the curator of Kew, J. Coutts. Someone looking for an
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