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BULBOUS FLOWERS, AND LYCOPODIUMS. 



BY SHIRLEY IIIBBERD. 



There are two matters that engage 

 me just now, and those are, to secure a 

 supply of bulbs for a few beds, and 

 about forty yards of ribbon, where, at 

 the present moment, my pompones are 

 blooming, in the places vacated by the 

 summer bedders. This part of the 

 garden — in immediate contiguity to the 

 house — is to be kept gay all the year 

 round, and hence a considerable por- 

 tion of the succession flowers have to 

 be grown in pots, and either turned 

 out, or plunged. All my hyacinths, 

 tulips, jonquils, narcissus, and scillas, 

 for this part of the garden, are in pots. 

 Elsewhere, they are planted in patches, 

 in good loam, with a spadeful of dung 

 to each patch ; but crocuses are the 

 only bulbs I can put in the ground for 

 the ribbons, because of the chrysanthe- 

 mums in November, and the bedders 

 in June. The chrysanthemums are in 

 pots, plunged : a row of tall sorts, in- 

 cluding Christine, Alfred Salter, 

 Beauty, Themis, Auguste Mie, Leon 

 Lequay, Antigone, Jenny Lind, Her- 

 mione, &c. ; in front of these, a close 

 file of Autumnum, and Drin Drin, in 

 alternation; then a row of Cedo 

 Nulli, and, in front, a row of Requi- 

 qui, next the stone edging. The beds 

 are of pompones, mixed, and the bor- 

 ders are furnished principally with the 

 large varieties ; to follow these, we 

 have a stock of evergreen shrubs, 

 and variegated kale, in pots, and the 

 next succession is of bulbs. 



The whole of my bulbs were potted 

 between the 6th and 13th of Novem- 

 ber, just one month later than my 

 usual time for the first batch. But 

 there is good time yet, for those who 

 have not made sure of spring flowers, 

 and, while they last, hyacinths and 

 tulips may be matched against all the 

 flowers of the world for beauty. My 

 plan of growing hyacinths in pots, for 

 out-door use, is very simple. The pots 

 are of two sizes, thirty-twos, with two 

 bulbs in each, for the outside rows of 

 circular beds, and sixteens, with four 

 bulbs in a pot, for the middle, and 

 second circle, and for ribbons. If you 

 pay a good price for bulbs— and mine 

 eost me £3 10s. per hundred— it is 



sheer folly to cramp them into small 

 pots, and ruin them in a season, for want 

 of root-room — and they want depth of 

 soil especially. My stock of hyacinths 

 this season consists of the following 

 varieties : — Red : Boquet Tendre, 

 Boquet Royal, Racine, Dan O'Connell, 

 Nonpareil, Rose of Holland, Sans 

 Souci, Waterloo, Appelius, Lord Wel- 

 lington, Mars, Princess Elizabeth. 

 Blue: Alamode, Albion, Keizer Alex- 

 ander, Kroon van Indian, Lord Wel- 

 lington, Noir Veritable (nearly black), 

 Pasquin, Passetout, Prince Frederick, 

 Prince Saxe AVeimar, Sir Joseph Pax- 

 ton, Commander, Beauty of Haarlem, 

 Grand Vidette, Orondates, Prince 

 Albert, Bleu Mourant, William I., 

 Deucer. White : Alamode, Prince of 

 Waterloo, Sceptre d'Or, La Virginite, 

 Grand Vainqueur, La Candeur, Queen 

 Victoria, Rousseau, Voltaire. Yellow: 

 Boquet d'Orange, Louis d'Or. The 

 effect in using these is in judicious 

 massing — the whites to confront the 

 reds, and the yellows against the vio- 

 lets, with a succession of repetitions of 

 the same variety, and you may have 

 something of a show. People who 

 have not yet planted bulbs, may still 

 do so with perfect safety, but not a 

 moment should be lost. Any good 

 garden soil will do for them, if im- 

 proved with a little sand, and old 

 manure. The compost I use for pot- 

 culture is well-rofted dung, chopped 

 turf, yellow loam, and coarse sand, in 

 equal parts. A few oyster-shells are 

 put in for drainage ; the compost is 

 then pressed in firm almost to the level 

 of the edge of the pot, the bulbs are 

 then pressed into it, and the pots are 

 heaped up with sand, so as to form a 

 cone on the top of every pot ; they 

 are then half-plunged in a bed of coal- 

 ashes, fitted with rails on pots for nets. 

 Those potted on the 6th of November 

 will not be touched till the end of De- 

 cember, when the sand will be care- 

 fully removed, and they "will have their 

 first dose of liquid manure, very weak. 

 During severe weather, some spare 

 lights will be placed over them, sup- 

 ported at the corners by pots turned 

 upside down, and, whenever necessary, 



