Irish gardening 



25 



coruerof a back garden, and the bowls were raised 

 on inverted pots to bring them asclose to tlie glass 

 as possible. The other bowls were ])iit, as I had 

 always done previously, into a dark place (which 

 was a bicycle shed), and stood on a stand, and 

 covered with some old sacking- This shed is 

 supposed tt) be I'lost -proof, but it isdoubtrvil. Among 

 these bowls were two f\dl of early single Tidips — ■ 

 Proserpine and Mon Tresor, which according to 

 the catalogues are supposed to flower at the same 

 time. The bowl of Proserpine w&s put in the 

 dark for live weeks, and is now in full flower, 

 strong and healthy. In the Mon Tresor l)owl, 

 whicli was in the liglit all the time, the bulbs are 

 now 2 inches high, and the flower buds can only 

 just be felt at the base of the leaves. The same 

 api)lies to two bowls of ordinary Hyacinths, 

 that taken 

 from the dark- 

 ness are now 

 stronger and 

 more forward 

 than tlie other 

 which was in 

 the light. One 

 buwl of Roman 

 H y a c i n t li s 

 and one of 

 the " Tenby"' 

 Daffodil I 

 risked no ex- 

 1 1 e ]• i m e n t s 

 with. Romans 

 at 2s. 3d. ])er 

 dozen are too 

 dear to ]jlay 

 with, and a 

 dozen of these 

 were id anted 

 on Septem- 

 ber 29th: they 

 were in tlowei- 

 on December 

 1 1 h , and 

 these flowers 

 wereordy ciit 

 from tliem 

 on the 10th 

 of January. 

 The bowl of 



Narcissus oljvallaris, the " Tenby '" Daffodil, will 

 be in full flower before this is in print. My 

 experience is that as socm as they are removed 

 from the darkness they should, where jjossible, 

 be kept in a living room — that is, a room where 

 there is a fire and where the atmosphere is kept 

 fairly warm. This, of coiu-sc is not very easy to 

 manage, i>s the bowls take up a consideral)le 

 amount of sjiace, added to whicli they must be 

 near the window to get ail tiie ligiit and, we hope, 

 sun. When onci; in flower they should jiiways l>e 

 remcjved wh(?n the dusting operations commence, 

 and an occasional watering with a line I'ose can, 

 or a sprayer, will freshen llieni up ami w.isii off 

 all dust collected on the lea\es and liowcis. 

 The. real watering reciuii'cd is very slight. Some- 

 times the suiface of the bulboline or libre will 

 a|)pear to be dry. but if a little of the sur'are 

 material be removi'd. it will probably i)c found 

 (pute moist underneath. Over watering is 

 dangerous to success, as in these bowls, made 

 witliout any means of drainage. siu'i)lus water 

 nmst lie in the bottom, and will rot the roots. If 

 this has haiipened it will very soon be detected 

 by the yellow tips of the foliage and jtoor weak 

 flowers. 



Cyclamen. 



Cyclamen tiuowx from thkee-yeau old coKJr.- 



MucH has been written lately to various garden- 

 ing papers about the treatment of tlvis charming 

 flower. Some growers believe it best to sow seeds 

 every year and throw out the plants after they 

 have flowered. I am a strong advocate of growing 

 on the old corms f(.r at least Ave years. Here we 

 grow a large quantity, and I find that the old 

 corms when properly treated make nmch flner 

 plants for grouping in a la.rge stove than seedlings. 

 We grow three or four dozen from seeds every 

 year, and discard any corm that has begun to 

 split, but so long as they are smooth and Arm 

 there is no fear but that they will make splendid 

 jdants if thev are well looked after and liberally 



treated, and 

 I see no dif- 

 ference in the 

 size of the 

 flowers, al- 

 though some 

 growers main- 

 tain that the 

 young jjlants 

 ]>roduce the 

 largest flowers 

 The idants 

 shown in the 

 p h o t o graph 

 are t hree years 

 old, and I 

 have never 

 seen ])lants 

 one year or 

 nf teen months 

 o I d c a r r y- 

 ing anything 

 like.so^ many 

 flowers. Twelve 

 of the 1)1 ants 

 iti the group 

 w hen they 

 were at their 

 b est e a c h 

 carried from 

 ISO to 200 

 fully develop- 

 ed flowers; 

 aiul I do not think it is possible to prod\ice so large 

 a plant in lift ecu months fj-om seeds. It stands to 

 reason that a large corm, which often develo])s four 

 or live flowering crowns, is capable of prodiuing 

 more flowers and foliage than a small bulb with 

 only one crown. 



The twelve plants mentioned above wt-re grown 

 in S-incli pots ; t he flowers and foliage were all that 

 could bedesii-ed: the variety isSutton'stJiant While. 

 1 do not believe in the common practice of 

 (Irving off the plants when they have finished 

 flowering. Certainly it is better to keep them a 

 little <lrier at the roof, but I do not think it is 

 advisable to dry off altogether: this treatment 

 offi-n causes f hebulb to ciack.aiul the i>lants are 

 (linicult to start iido giowt h after the drying off 



process. 



Aftci' tile llowcrs ;Me past 1 feed liberally for 

 about a month, in fact till the leaves begin to turn 

 vellow and drop off natm-ally; and here I nuiy say 

 that I have measured some of the corms before 

 starting to feed and after feeding was stopped, 

 and have fmmd them to measure as much as half 

 an inch more in circumference, so I have come to 

 the conclusion that it is a serious check to (he 

 plant to dry it off completely. 



