IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME IX 

 No. 99 



Edited by C- F. Ball. 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



iMAV 

 1914 



Tulips. 



By W. R. Dykes, Charterhouse, Godahning. 



There seems to be only one real reason "why the 

 ^vi]d species of Tulip are so seldom cultivated 

 in our gardens, and this is that many of them 

 make little or no increase by offsets from the 

 bulbs. From specimens dug wp in Central Asia 





too often the disappointment of seeing tlie 

 promising seed-vessels rot and wither away under 

 the influence of a fungoid disease, the attack of 

 which they woidd probably be able to resist 

 with the help of more sunshine and a drier 



TULIPA DAsvsTEWox. A pretty DAvarf S])c'fies I'nun Turkestan with 

 yellow flowers tipjx'd with white. 



as many as eight or ten old annual skins can be 

 removed, showing that the bulbs have grown in 

 one spot for that period or longer without ever 

 making a single offset. Propagation must 

 evidently take place by means of seeds, and yet 

 this method of increase is sadly neglected in our 

 gardens. There is perhajis some excuse for us 

 in the damp north-west of Europe, for, if we 

 try to obtain seeds of our Tulips, Ave have only 



atmosphere. Moreover, e\ en when sound seeds 

 are obtained, they must be sown in early 

 autu]un if they are to germinate freely. W'lun 

 the seeds are sown in Sci)tember or October, the 

 young i)lants conu' up thickly like siiuill onions 

 in early spring, but when soAving is delayed until 

 the new year the seeds never germinate till 

 twelve months later, and usually do not ger- 

 jninate at all. It would doubtless l)e difficult for 



