90 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



see that the drainage is good, and be sure the pots are not too large. A 

 large bulb will bloom freely in a six-inrh pot, while if planted In a 

 candy bucket it may give only a grand display of tropical foliage. The 

 writer once crowded an extra large bulb having three eyes, into a ten- 

 quart pail, and this plant produced twenty-eight perfect flowers during 

 the winter; the record, so far as we know. 



There are many other winter blooming bulbs of the easiest possible 

 culture, but this paper is already too long. There is one, however, 

 the queen of all, producing all winter long, numerous strikingly hand- 

 some flowers of the most delicate and beautiful shades, white, pink, 

 rose, blush, crimson, etc., and with foliage so prettily marked and beau- 

 tiful that it would be a desirable ornamental plant, even if it never 

 bloomed at all. This is the cyclamen. Probably no pot plants are so 

 universally satisfactory. They require a light porous soil containing 

 plenty of sand or coal ashes, and the bujbs should be set on the surface, 

 rather than in the soil. As a rule, it is better to procure cyclamen 

 bulbs already started, than to get dormant ones, as they do not all start 

 readily under ordinary living-room conditions, although they do ex- 

 ceedingly well when once started. 



In general, winter blooming bulbs should be planted from September 



to .January in pots or boxes of light soil which just covers the bulbs. 



The soil should be firmly pressed about them, they should be thoroughly 



V atered, and set in a cool, moist, dark cellar to form roots. On this 



depends, to a great extent, success or failure. During this time do 



not keep them soggy wet, nor let them get dust dry. The time required 



varies from a few days for sacred lilies, freesias and alliums, to six 



weeks or two months for hyacinths and Easter Lilies. In most cases 



when top growth begins to show they may be brought to the light, 



and will bloom in due time. Planted and brought to light at different 



times, it is easy to have a succession of lovely flowers to brighten the 

 home all winter. And how they do cheer the dull, dreary days, and 



make "home" worthy of fhe name even though it only be a shanty or 

 a sod house. 



Plant plenty of flowers, for they have a refining and uplifting ten- 

 dency, and help to make truer, better nobler men and women. Es- 

 pecially, plant plenty of bulbs, they are so little care, so sure to bloom 

 and ])lease you, so inexpensive, and many of them have beauty and 

 fragrance beyond comparison. With all their excellent qualities they are 

 cosmopolitan, and will unfold their cheery brightness and exquisite 

 fragrance as fully in the back yard of the tenement as on the lawn of 

 the millionaire; as freely in a tin can in a cottage window as in a 

 cut glass bowl or silvei- jardiniere in a palace. Plant bulbs. 



DISCUSSION. 

 Chairman: I think we are fortunate this afternoon in having the 

 different subjects under discussion covered as completely as they have 



