J8q4- 



GARDENING. 



PARROT TULIPS 



flowering and fine. All the double flowered 

 va ieties bloom well planted out in the 

 garden. 



Don't omit the parrot tulips. Thej^ 

 fire happily among the cheapest and they 

 are late blooning. Their peculiar fantas- 

 tic forms and rich coloring render them 

 great favorites as cut flowers especially 

 with people who aspire to artistic or 

 esthetic tastes. They are hardy, easy to 

 grow, and fine for cutting. Our illustra- 

 tion is engraved from a photograph of a 

 Ijuncli of these tulips taken at Dosoris 

 last May. 



Tulips grow well in any ordinary gar- 

 den soil, but if it is deep, rich, somewhat 

 sandy, and well drained so much the bet- 

 ter, and if the conditions are to their lik- 

 ing the\- are long lived and multiply 

 freely. While it is well to get them into 

 the ground as soon as possible October is 

 the principal month for planting them, in 

 the case of beds we cannot help this be- 

 <ause the beds won't be cleared of their 

 summer occupants before that time. 

 While it is all right to fill the beds with a 

 ■densearray of tulips, we confess to a weak- 

 ness lor growing them in narrow borders 

 very thick, and all kinds mixed together, 

 then we get flowers from the same patch 

 from early in April when the Due Van 

 Thol appears, till the Gesnerianas and 

 A'ellow Rose are in their heyday well nigh 

 the end of May. When the earlier varie- 

 . ties bloom and their petals fall we cut ofl 

 their seed heads, and everything is neat. 

 A belt of this sort is illustrated in Gar- 

 iJENi.NG, front page, September 15, 1893. 



H\ ACINTHS.— .\11 Dutch hyacinths grow- 

 well out of doors and bloom without an\' 

 ■difliculty. What are best for indoors are 

 Jilso most showy outside, butso ver\'w-ell 

 do h\-acinths bloom in the open ground 



that we usually get the cheapest kinds 

 for this purpose. The single varieties are 

 the finest, but all the doubles also do 

 •well. The first planting will bloom well 

 no matter how poor the ground may be, 

 but if you want the bulbs to live and do 

 well in after years givethem good ground, 

 such as we have advised for tulips. The 

 following are quite good cheap varieties: 

 Alba superbissima, Blanchard, Madame 

 van der Hoop, Bironess Van Thuyll, 

 white; Grandeur a Merveille, and Vol- 

 taire, blush; Norma, Fabiola, Gertrude, 

 pink; Cosmos, Gigantea, rose; Amy, Bou- 

 quet Tendre, Robert Steiger, red or crim- 

 son; Czar Peter, Leonidas, pale blue; and 

 Blue Morant, Charles Dickens, La Pey- 

 rouse, and William I, other shades "of 

 blue. Among double flowered sorts La 

 Tour d' Auvergne, white; Garrick, blue, 

 and Lord Wellington, blush, are very 

 good. 



Narcissus.— In the southern states all 

 kinds are hardy, but about New York the 

 polyanthus section is tender. But the 

 finest ot all narcissi, namelv, the large 

 flowered daff'odils like Hor'sfieldii, Em- 

 peror and Empress, and Trumpet Major 

 are perfectly hardv, so arc Orange and 

 Silver Phoenix, Sir' Watkin, Stella, and all 

 others of that section. We find too that 

 in good ground in a warm exposure jon- 

 quils and biflorus are hardy enough and 

 increase considerabh-. Thepoet's narcis- 

 sus comes in a little later, and both the 

 single and double varieties, and oniatus 

 the early bloomiug varieties are verj- 

 hardj', easy to grow, sure to bloom, and 

 long "lived." We find that all kinds of nar- 

 cissus like good, deep, rich soil, and a 

 sheltered, warm spot. It doesn't matter 

 whether they are grown in the bordersor 

 in the grass. The poet's varieties look 



verj- pretty scattered among the grass 

 near the outskirts of the lawn fringingthe 

 wood or shrubber_v, and where the grass 

 isn't cut over before June. All the large 

 yellow daffodils look well in clumps or 

 scattered in the vicinity of water, that is 

 on the grassy banks, they also look well 

 in borders, and among other plants in 

 beds, but alone in a bed they have an 

 artificial appearance. Plant them accord- 

 ■ jng to size, three, four, or five inches under 

 the surface of the ground, the lighter the 

 ground and the smaller the bulb the 

 deeper j'our plant. We know this isn't as 

 deep as is usualh' recommended, but it is 

 what we practice and we get good results. 

 We have killed a good many bulbs by 

 over deep planting Like lily bulbs they 

 work their way down. And by a mulch 

 ing of loose fine manure over the ground 

 we can protect them from severe frost in 

 winter and in this way give them the 

 equivalent for deep planting just at the 

 time they most need it. 



Snowdrops.— Plant them about three 

 inches deep in the grass on the lawn or in 

 the borders, setting one to five bulbs 

 together, as you wish to have them singly 

 or in clumps. Make the holes with a 

 pointed stick or dibber, drop in the bulb, 

 top up, and press the sod or earth down 

 over it with 3'our foot to close the hole. 

 Don't plant the common variety, it istoo 

 small, get Ehvesii instead. 



Crocuses.— Plant one to three together 

 in good ground, and as recommended for 

 snowdrops. They are verj- cheap, get lots 

 of them. Nothing is more cheerful in 

 spring. Get the large flowered varieties 

 of golden yellow, blue, white and striped. 

 While they like sunshine when they are in 

 bloom they are better to have "a little 

 shade after that. 



Iris. — There are lots of bulbous irises, 

 for instance retico/ata,alittle beauty that 

 blossoms when the crocuses do, and 

 w-hich every one should own. What are 

 called English, and Spanish irises are 

 quite cheap and they make a fine show in 

 early summer. Treat them as you would 

 daftbdils. The Spanish irises bloom first, 

 the English ones a fortnight later. There 

 are other fine species as Persica and 

 Susiana but they need an extended notice 

 for themselves. 



Siberian SyuiLLS iScilla Sibirica) come 

 into bloom a little later than thecrocuses. 

 They have intense blue flowers and thrive 

 where the crocuses do. Get S. hifolia too, 

 it is somewhat like the Siberian Of the 

 S. canipanulata. a large and later bloom- 

 ing specie there are blue, white and rose 

 colored varieties, a half dozen bulbs of 

 each— enough for a clump should be 

 enough to begin with. 



Glory of the Snow- (Chionodoxa) 

 looks much like a Siberian squ'U and 

 needs the same treatment. It is lovely. 

 The commonest one, namely LuciJix is 

 still the best. 



Of Dog's tooth violet (i;ri-t/iron/um) 

 the European sorts (Dens-canis). and the 

 Western one igrandifforvm) are the most 

 desirable, and both are very easy to grow 

 in rich somewhat moist soil, shaded from 

 warm sunshine. 



The Guinea hen Flower (Fritillaria. 

 Meleagris) is a nice thing to p'ant in the 

 borders in the front nearshrubbery where 

 it can run wild. The flowers are quite 

 striking, and under good cultivation the 

 plants bloom freely year after year. 



Crow-n Imperial (F. imperialis) —A. 

 more vigorous plant by far, and an old 

 fashioned favorite, but it requires good 

 ground and good cultivation, such as one 

 would give to choice daff'odils to get it to 

 bloom vear after vear. To begin with a 

 few bufbs will suffice. 



