454 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



isfactory to most lovers of flowers as the named bulbs are, which will quite* 

 likely cost as much singly, as a dozen of the unnamed ones, and prove to be 

 no more beautiful. 



These bulbs should be procured and planted in September and October. 

 Select a place for them where the ground can be kept free from water in the 

 spring. If not naturally well drained remove the soil to the depth of a foot, 

 or more, and put in brick, old bones, broken crockery, and anything which 

 will hold up the soil you have removed sufficiently, when it is returned, to 

 allow all surplus water to drain out of it. Make this soil rich with old and 

 perfectly rotted manure from a yard in which cows have been kept. No other 

 is good for bulbs. Incorporate it thoroughly with the earth in which your 

 bulbs are to be planted. This is all there is to be done, until you set out your 

 bulbs. When you do that, put the larger ones, like tulips and hyacinths, 4 or 

 5 inches under the soil and about 8 inches apart. The smaller ones can be 

 planted more closely together, and not quite as deep. When cold weather sets 

 in, it is well to cover the beds with some coarse litter from the barnyard. This 

 must be removed as soon as the plants begin to come up in spring. After 

 they have bloomed, annuals can be planted in the bed, without interfering in 

 the least with the bulbs. Do not cut off the tops, but let them ripen and die 

 off to suit themselves. In planting them, do not set them out in a haphazard 

 way, but keep each variety by itself. It is a good plan, when one has but few, to 

 plant the tulips in the center, with the hyacinths in a circle about them, let- 

 ting the crocuses and scillas edge the bed. 



Bulbs after Forcing. — A writer in The Garden, gives the following 



experience in regard to the after treatment of Dutch bulbs that have first been 



bloomed in pots: 



We annually plant our hyacinths in herbaceous borders after they have bloom- 

 ed the first year in pots. They are placed in sandy soil, such as the refuse from 

 the potting-shed or anything containing plenty of sand, because our soil is of a 

 stiff, retentive character. We plant the bulbs from three to four inches 

 deep. The following season they produce good spikes of bloom, and annually 

 afterward they bloom equally well, and make an effective show in the borders 

 in spring. Some of them have been in the same position five years, and are 

 quite as good, perhaps a little better, than when first planted, since which they 

 have not been disturbed. I do not think that anything is gained by lifting the 

 bulbs annually. We use all our forced bulbs, such as tulips, narcissi, jonquils, 

 crocuses, etc., in the same way, and they all produce blooms which are useful. 



Bulb Hints. — "A Flower Grower " in the New York Tribune maintains 

 that a chief reason why bulls deteriorate from year to year is that in order 

 to form a perfect bulb for the next season's flowering the leaves should not 

 be bruised, broken or interfered with in the least until they have wholly 

 faded, as their substance goes to form the new bulb. But the leaves of 

 many kinds, as of tulips, which at first are so handsomely expanded and 

 luxuriant, become as unsightly as old paper or old rags as they decline. 

 For such it is best to have a reserve bed out of which the best bulbs are dug 

 and kept indoors as soon as ripe (the same treatment as for onions) and so 

 kept from July to October, when they are planted where they shall bloom. 

 If there is no such reserve or nursery bed, and the show bed is wanted for 



