Back in the 1970s, Hsu Chun-tu had already noticed the potential of the Formosa lily. At that time production of cut lily flowers in Taiwan was continuously increasing, but the seed bulbs used for cultivation almost all came from the Netherlands. Hsu particularly lamented the fact that exploitation of Taiwan's native lilies remained at the stage of "mining" them by picking from the wild.
民國六○年代，台大園藝系教授許圳塗已注意到台灣百合的潛力，加上國內百合切花生產數量不斷增加，栽培所需種球卻幾乎全數來自荷蘭，當時許圳塗就指出，對於原生百合，國人仍停留在野地隨人採摘的「原礦型」利用上，殊為可惜。