THE FLORAL WORLD AND aARDEN aUIDE. 187 



in a dormant state, and those who come first are best served. The ground 

 they are to occupy need not be disturbed. Make up a bed in the reserve 

 ground, or, better still, in a cold pit with a north aspect. The bed should 

 be on a hard bottom, well drained, and should consist of leaf-mould, 

 rotteu dung, and sharp sand in equal proportions. Sand may, indeed, be 

 used almost ad lihitum. The Dutch grounds are very sandy, very moist, 

 and are regularly enriched with decomposed manures. If the bulbs are 

 to be finally planted in clumps, arrange them in clumps in the preparatory 

 bed, tally them that no mistake may happen, plant them on three inche.s 

 of the mixture, and cover with three or four inches more. Give one good 

 watering, and leave them to their fate. Earlj' tulips, hyacintbs, crocuses, 

 snowdrops, may all be treated in the same way. As soon as the ground 

 on which they are to be bloomed can be got clear, trench it over, and 

 dress it with a liberal allowance of sharp sand and rotten dung. Lift the 

 bulbs in clumps from the preparatory bed with as little disturbance or 

 injury of the roots as possible. Plant them in their places in whatever 

 arrangement has been determined on, and cover them at least five inches 

 deep. If a mulching of old dung two inches deep will not be objection- 

 able in its appearance, adopt it, and a fine bloom will be the result, and 

 after they bloom the bulbs will grow vigorously, and form germinal 

 blossoms for the next season. This is a very simple process, but it may 

 make all the difterence between an annual and heavy outlay, and the pos- 

 session of a permanent stock with a certainty of increase at a single cost 

 in the first instance. Instead of being exhau.stive, as the procrastinating 

 process must be, it is strengthening and promotive of the formation of 

 offsets J even the check given by lifting is good, by preventing the pro- 

 trusion of the stems until severe frosts are pretty well over in the spring. 

 But what^of the management when the bloom is over ? That is simply 

 a continuance of the same process in inverse order. The bulbs may be 

 lifted at 'dvij time if care be taken not to break the roots or shake off 

 the soil, and, fortunately, there is nothing lifts better than a hyacinth or 

 tulip if in sandy, well-manured soil. Thousands may be taken up without 

 the destruction of a dozen inches of roots if small-tined forks are used, and 

 a time chosen when the ground is reasonably moist, and the weather damp 

 and cool. Let them be removed to the same reserve ground, be laid in 

 shallow trenches, and covered with the same depth of loose sandy stuflf as 

 they were in when blooming. Thej^ will there finish their growth com- 

 pletely, and should remain undisturbed till the leaves have faded, when 

 they may be dried off and stowed away till September comes again. As 

 to potted bulbs, they should be set to work equally early, and according 

 to the date at which they are wanted in bloom, be encouraged or retarded 

 by suitable temperatures. Those wanted latest should be kept in the pit 

 as long as possible, and the more slowly they grow the better for their 

 bloom at last, and their subsequent preservation. The main point in all 

 the details of culture is to guard against haste, either in forcing bulbs 

 into bloom or in compelling them to ripen off after blooming by withhold- 

 ing water. In their later stages they should have abundance ; if in rich 

 soU, well drained, they can hardly have too much for three or four weeks 

 after blooming, but as soon as the foliage shows signs of decay Avater 

 should be withheld, the sun should play with all its force upon them, and 

 the ripening should be completed without exposing the bulbs to the atmos- 

 phere until the foliage has utterly withered. 



