October 17, 1908 



horticulture: 



Home Grown Tulips 



505 



Planting Offsets. 



It is generally understood that tulip bulb growing 

 in the States cannot, under present conditions, be an 

 attractive commercial proposition for many reasons, — 

 the cost of labor, cost of advertising — you must adver- 

 tise to sell — the percentage of loss, and the formidable 

 competition of the foreign product. 



The item of labor, however, is the insurmountable 

 obstacle that spells failure. Prices for labor as paid 

 here compared with the daily wage of Holland and 

 again the cost of the product landed here, duty paid, 

 would be sufficiently convincing to show to anyone de- 

 siring to enter the field, that the attempt might lead 

 his footsteps along a shady lane to a little house where 

 they served free soup and the town paid the bills. Yet, 

 while this is absolutely true in relation to a commercial 

 enterprise there are occasions where a man can success- 

 fully and economically increase his stock of bulbs with 

 but little effort and a margin on the right side, by work- 

 ing on his old bulbs. 



Tulips propagate themselves by sending out "offsets," 

 that is, little tulips from the bottom of the old bulb. 

 These offsets if broken off and planted successively for 

 two or three seasons will make first-sized bulbs. The 

 method of treatment is simplicity itself. Simply the 

 breaking off the sets and scattering them on the ground 

 ami covering them with two inches of earth. They may 

 be covered with boughs after the ground has frozen or 

 they may be left as they are. In the spring they may 

 be lifted if the ground is needed, or they may be left in 

 the ground. The lifting is preferable. No technical 

 skill is required to do this work. A small boy can do 

 it, every bit of it. Or the small boy can break off the 

 "sets'" and the man in an off time can plant them. Many 

 Dutchmen with whom I have spoken have laughed at 

 the suggestion of successfully growing bulbs under con- 

 ditions as I stated them but as I once lived in Missouri 

 1 prepared comparative pictures which conclusively 

 proved that even some first-year offsets threw good- 

 sized flowers. 



The late Superintendent William Doogue of Boston 

 did this work most successfully and economically at the 

 City Greenhouses in Dorchester. Women were em- 



Young Tulips in Bloom. 



ployed at certain seasons to clean the bulbs and the 

 number of bulbs they cleaned and the rapidity with 

 which they worked made it a short operation. The 

 work of planting was performed by men. One year in 

 the Public Garden the tulips grown in this manner 

 were used almost exclusively on the outlying beds and 

 compared very favorably with the imported product. 



I know there will be many that will smile at the sug- 

 gestion but the possibility of economical handling of 

 tulips is a fact and the two pictures accompanying this 

 article show the planting in the fall and the resulting 

 bloom in the spring. As can be seen in the picture 

 where the men are planting, the "offsets" are very small 

 almost too small to throw the flowers that are shown in 

 the companion picture. 



The fact of increased price of Holland tulips is not 

 generally considered but it is a fact, nevertheless, that 

 in coming years the Dutchmen will be obliged to ask 

 more for their bulbs because of increased price of land 

 for growing owing to the encroachment of buildings 

 and the impoverishment and worked-out condition of 

 what was formerly most desirable and high priced land. 

 All bulbous stuff has a tendency towards disease and to 

 this is due the abandonment of many bulb growing dis- 

 tricts. 



Yucca Filamentosa in Water 

 Scenery 



Yucca filamentosa is a noble plant when in bloom, 

 ■ ver position it may be given in the garden and is 

 as hardy and contented at all times and under all con- 

 ditions as it is noble. Our cover illustration shows an 

 instance of its use in plantations adjacent to water, 

 something not often seen but certainly quite effective as 

 here displayed. The far-famed country seat of J. B. 

 Duke at Somerville, X. J., where this picture was taken 

 abounds in beautiful and suggestive gardening exam- 

 ples and we shall have some more to present from time 

 to time. 



