266 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



Another very important matter, especially in respect of exhibi- 

 tion hyacinths, is the tying of them. The white and green sticks in 

 common use are hideous and mischievous, and yet it is with such 

 things that amateurs invariably disfigure the specimens they send to 

 exhibitions. What applies to an exhibition applies also to the deco- 

 ration of the conservatory, and even to the making-up of a bed or 

 border instantaneously by the plunging system. "We must have 

 neatness, and the support to the spike ought to be invisible, or 

 nearly so. Now, to make effectual invisible supports is one of the 

 simplest matters in the world, and in the slack time now before us 

 all, hyacinth-growers have an opportunity of making them ready. 

 Common iron wire Te-inch thick, or if only |-inch thick answers 

 admirably, and the mode of preparing the supports is to cut the wire 

 to suitable lengths, and bend each so that it will go down beside the 

 bulb, and after passing over its upper surface, resume the perpen- 

 dicular, and by carefully applying it to the stem in and amongst the 

 flowers, afford a sufficient support to preserve it upright and firm. 



Experience has long since taught me that there is only one sure 

 and certain way of securing a number of flowers or bulbs in the same 

 pot or basket, and that is to pot them after the flowers have acquired 

 colour. All hyacinths are potted singly here, the cheap small bulbs 

 in common 60-size pots, with one small crock only, and as much rich 

 stuff as can be crammed in for the feeding of the bulb. I flowered a 

 whole set of early tulips separately in 60-size pots last year, and 

 they turned out quite equal to our best batches of two or three each 

 in 48-size. "With a lot of bulbs in flower, all singly and in small 

 pots, groups may be made in baskets, beds, trophies — in any way, in 

 fact, which requires the spikes to be pretty uniform in size and 

 character, because they can be selected to fit. But to have several 

 in the same pot all equally balanced, I repeat they must be potted 

 after the}" come into flower, and thereby hangs a little tale. You go 

 to Covent Garden Market, in February or March, and you will see 

 Van Thols and other kinds of tulips, three in a pot, all as equal as if 

 turned out of a mould and coloured by hand. Tou go home and 

 have a look at your five hundred (say) of the same sorts, all potted 

 three in a pot, and what do you see ? I ask the question a second 

 time, What do you see ? Pot No. 1 has two pushing nicely, and a 

 third scarcely moving. Pot No. 2 has one pushing ahead of the 

 other two, so that it will be quite past before they come into bloom. 

 Pot No. 3 shows three stages of progress — one flower is fully ex- 

 panded, another is just showing colour, and the third is barely 

 peeping. The remedy is as simple as working logarithms, and it is, 

 as before remarked, to pot them after the blooms have advanced to 

 nearly the point of expansion, but to provide for it in time, arrange- 

 ments must be made now to start them in heds, in pits, frames, or 

 greenhouses. Make up a bed of nice turfy loam with a little manure 

 added, plant the bulbs all over it pretty thick, and cover with leaf- 

 soil or cocoanut-fibre, and wait the issue. In due time the flowers 

 will appear — two or three in one spot, half-a-dozen in another, here 

 one, there two, and so on throughout the bed. Lift them out care- 

 fully, and pot them to match, and your task is done, whether you 



