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A FEW GOOD BULBOUS PLANTS FOR SUMMER ^ND 

 AUTUMN FLOWERING. 



BY J. E. M'ELBOY, 

 Head Gardener, lloray Lodge, Campden Hill. 



LITTLE judgment in selecting, knowledge of cultural 

 details, and the aid of a greenhouse or a few pits, are 

 sufficient to insure a display of bulbous plants every 

 day in the year. Notwithstanding this fact, very few 

 plant-growers trouble themselves about bulbous plants 

 beyond the customary display of Dutch bulbs in the spring. I shall 

 not give a list of all that can be had in bloom throughout the year, 

 or even all that can be had in bloom through the two quarters of it 

 named above. To do that would be of no more service than simply 

 naming a good trade catalogue in which a list of bulbs is to be 

 found. Running over long lists certainly does more harm than 

 good, and frightens the would-be cultivator into the belief that it is 

 necessary to have the lot or none ; or, at all events, leaves him in such 

 a mist that he is unable to pick out the best. Now I will do that for 

 him, and name such only as are easy to grow, easy to procure, and which 

 will, by the beauty of their flowers, repay the cultivator for his labour. 



AGAPANTHUS UMBELLATUS. 



As it is my intention to name those only which are more remark- 

 able for their beauty than a high price, I shall take first the African 

 lily, Agapanthus umbellatus, which everybody either does know, or 

 ought to know, for it is one of the very best flowering plants we 

 have through the whole of July and the first week or two in August. 

 The culture is very simple. The plants must be potted in good 

 fibry loam and rotten manure, two parts of the former to one of the 

 latter, and with a good drainage. The size of the pot must depend upon 

 that of the plant, but large specimens in thirteen-inch pots produce the 

 grandest effect. Give the plants plenty of water when in full 

 growth, and keep dry during the winter. Any outhouse will suit 

 them through the winter, provided no frost can get to them, and they 

 must have some amount of light.; In the summer, stand them out of 

 doors in a shady position until they come into bloom, when, if they are 

 wanted for indoor decoration, they can be shifted to the conservatory ; 

 if not, they have a fine effect placed singly on the lawn. After the 

 beauty of the flowers is past, place them in the full sun to thoroughly 

 ripen the bulbs, for their blooming next year depends in a large 

 measure upon how they are matured in the autumn. The white 

 variety is pretty, but not equal to the blue. 



Beatoa gemmlfloba, with its pretty crimson pentstemon-like 

 flowers, is another fine subject. The soil should be rather sandier 

 than that advised for the preceding. 



Camassia escelenta, like the Bravoa, flowers in July, requires 

 peat and loam. The flowers are rich purple. 



