426 BOAKD OF AGllICULTUKE. 



FLOWERING BULBS. 



KDWARD Y. TEAS, CENTEUVILLE, INDIANA. 



This is a very broad subject. I have not lived long enough to learn 

 very much about the matter; still 1 Imve grown a good many, and at this 

 time have more than a million bulbs ready for spring planting. 



I hardly know where to begin, unless it is with the earliest flower to 

 bloom out of doors in the spring, the glory of the snow, with its long 

 botanical name, Chionodexci Lucillea, a small l)ull) that comes from Si- 

 beria. This is about the first to open its brilliant slvy-blue flowers, and it 

 makes a fine border for a bed of other hardy bulbs, such as hyacinths, 

 tulips, iris, etc. 



" Next to bloom with me are the crocuses, in many colors, yellow, white, 

 blue, striped, etc. I like to plant these in October or November, in the 

 sod on the lawn, in fancy designs, circles, crosses, wheels, stars, etc. 

 Take a strong stick, Jike the end of a broom handle, drive it into the 

 ground five or six inches deep, and drop a bulb in each hole, filling the 

 hole with sand. The plant will come up next spring and yearly there- 

 after. The blooming is past and the foliage ripening before the lawn 

 mower needs to start, so that the bulbs and their bloom do not interfere 

 with anything. If crocus are planted in designs, it is important to use 

 all of one color in each design, as different colors bloom at different 

 periods, a few days apart. 



Hyacinths and tulips are too well known to require mention from me, 

 only to say every one having space for a flower garden should have a 

 bed of these. Plant good varieties of them in October or early November, 

 putting the bulbs ab»nt six inches deep and covering vrith sand or sandy 

 soil. Before hard freezing occurs, the bed should be mulched with coarse 

 manure to the depth of about three inches. This will be useful as a pro- 

 tection from the cold and hard freezing, and also add to the vigorous 

 growth of the plants. 



I think hyacinths are not worth the room they occupy after the sec- 

 ond- j^ear's blooming, but bulbs are so cheap that no one need hesitate on 

 this account to plant them. Tulips do fairly well for several years after 

 planting, and succeed on most any kind of soil, though nearly all hardy 

 bulbs do best in very sandy soil. In Holland, where these bulbs are 

 grown to greater perfection than anywhere else, the soil is apparently 

 pure drifted sand, worth only about $200 to ^-iOQ per acre. 



Lilies are among the useful and beautiful bulbs, hardy, more or less, 

 but then this thing of hardiness of plants is a matter of circumstances 

 more than latitude. The beautiful Siberian lily, Tounifolinm, is perfectly 

 bardy in Siberia, and grown so abundantly as to be an important article 



