THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 297 



Early Tulips and "Florists' (late) Tulips. — These are two 

 valuable sections of bulbs for the decoration of the garden. Se- 

 lections have been published so often, as I see by referring to past 

 volumes, that I shall not lengthen out this paper by giving any 

 •names. Eortunately they are all good, so it scarcely matters what 

 sorts people purchase. What I have to say about the early tulips 

 is that they may be flowered in beds and borders in time to be 

 removed to make room for the ordinary summer bedders, but that a 

 better way is to plant tliem in such a mauner that they may remain 

 in the ground two or three years, the geraniums, verbenas, etc., etc., 

 being planted between the rows of tulips, so as to avoid the 

 necessity of disturbing them. What splendid things they are in 

 pots is well known, such sorts as Van Thol, PottehaJcker, Bex Suhro- 

 i'uni, Trianon, Telloiu Prince, and Proserpine being grown in thou- 

 sands for Covent Garden Market. And as telling secrets seems to 

 be my province, this time I will tell you how the market growers 

 manage them. You will observe that a market specimen of Yau 

 Thol consists of three bulbs in a five or six-inch pot, all the flowers in 

 exactly the same degree of expansion, matching so well that a person 

 uninitiated is sorely puzzled to know how the thing is clone. In 

 private greenhouses we see pots of tulips with the flowers in diflierent 

 stages of advance, some full out, others half out, and soon, the bulbs 

 in a pot refusing to move precisely at the same pace. This would 

 never do for market growers, and so you will say they hit upon a 

 plan of inducing the bulbs to break into bloom all together in an even 

 race. No, dear friend, they do not, they cannot ; they accomplish 

 by stratagem what skill is quite unequal to. They plant all their 

 bulbs in beds of turfy loam in pits, greenhouses, and the open 

 ground. When preparing to send to market they take up such as 

 have the flowers half expanded — you know the stage of expansion 

 I mean ; it is when the flower is about the shape and size of a walnut, 

 and not at all expanded to a cup. They pot these three in a pot 

 to match exactly, and then go to market with them and astonish 

 mankind with apparent evidence that the bulbs obey their bidding 

 and flower to the very hour they are required. 



You will suppose, perhaps, that I cannot say anything about 

 the Florists' tulips — the tulips that have figured in history, and 

 for single bulbs of which infatuates have bartered lands, houses, 

 cattle, money, and peace of mind ; you will suppose that I cannot 

 speak of these without pretending to be very learned, and without 

 becoming elaborate and tedious. ^Nothing of the sort. What I 

 have to say is this, that plain people, who do not intend to sacrifice 

 their days and nights, and more money than they can aflln'd, to the 

 growing of late tulips, ought nevertheless to have them, because of 

 their gorgeous beauty. It is easy enough. I see good mixtures 

 quoted in Carter's catalogue at half-a-guinea a hundred. These 

 will produce flowers as good for garden decoration as bulbs of 

 Charles Williams, which are now selling at twenty-one pounds each. 

 If you want names, precise markings, characters suitable for pedantic 

 discussions, you must become a tulip grower, which means that you 

 must rob your family, enjoy the headache, and become a slave to 



