JUNE 



IRISH GARDENING. 



93 



Tulips 



Mulching 



The garden is now guy with the gorgeous flowers 

 of the ever attractive tulip. What beauty of form 



and variety in colour is presented by these tall 

 stalked May-flowering varieties ! How surpassingly 

 more beautiful the " selfs " are than the striped or 



feathered fancies of the florist form of flower ! They 



are easily grown, but, as has been well said by one 



who loves them, the 



" tulip is a queenly 



flower, and asketh a 



rich soil and the hand 



of a lover." The tulip 



was introduced into this 



country towards the end 



of the sixteenth century. 



and since then has 



always been a favourite 



garden decoration. 



There are broadly two 



classes — the short- 

 stalked early-flowering 



and the long-stalked 



May - flowering forms. 



It is difficult to say how 



many varieties there 



are row, but there are 



a great many. Even 



in the seventeenth cen- 

 tury Parkenson de- 

 scribes as many as a 



hundred and fifty 



different kinds. Lovers 



of the tulip owe much 



to that veteran enthu- 

 siast, our own Mr. 



William Baylor Hart- 



land, whose services in 



connection w^ith the 



delightful May-flower- 

 ing varieties deserve 

 the warmest gratitude 

 of all sincere admirers 

 ot these graceful plants. 

 The parents of most 

 of the present varieties 



of May-flowering tulips were collected by Mr. Hartland 

 from old cottage gardens throughout Ireland, and h}- 

 Messrs. Barr from similar sources in Great Britain, 

 hence the term "Cottage" tulip applied to the class. 

 When planted in masses of one sort, they give grand 

 effectsi Variety and richness of colour are distinctive 

 features in these tulips — rosy white, rose, rose suffused 

 with salmon, heliotrope flushed with rose orange, 

 orange yellow, golden }ellow, scarlet and purple. In 

 addition to colour, the tall strong stems rising from 

 broad grey-toned foliage, and ending in graceful cup- 

 shaped flowers, give a distinctive beauty to these 

 charming plants. The following are the names of a 

 few varieties : — Brilliant. Bronze King, Carnation, 

 Corona lutea. Dainty Maid, Elegans, Fairy Queen, 

 Fulgens, The Fawn, Golden Goblet, Lucifer, &c. 



manure 

 nature may 



•'Mulch" is a gardening term for a surface-soil 

 covering, its object being either to conserve the mois- 

 ture in the soil by preventing evaporation or to aflford a 

 small continuous supply of soluble plant food. If only 

 the first object is in view, straw, lawn mowings, or even 

 powdery soil will answer the purpose, but if the second 

 function is aimed at then half-rotten or well-rotted 



of a strawy 

 be used. 

 But care must be taken 

 that it is not of a too 

 moist or sticky nature, 

 else it will seal the 

 pores of the soil by 

 preventing proper soil 

 aeration, and thus work 

 harm instead of good 

 to the living roots of 

 the plant. Mulching 

 may now be com- 

 menced. If done too 

 early in the season it 

 would tend to delay 

 the natural warming of 

 the soil, and so retard 

 growth. The subjects 

 that benefit most, per- 

 haps, from mulching 

 are recently planted 

 trees and shrubs and 

 transplanted herba- 

 ceous plants. It is well 

 known, too, that roses, 

 sweet peas, asparagus, 

 rhubarb, raspberry, 

 loganberry, and numer- 

 ous other plants benefit 

 greatly by the applica- 

 tion of a feeding mulch. 

 Pot plants are fre- 

 quently mulched with 

 a mixture of sifted loam 

 and chemical manures. 

 For beds and borders 

 frequent and careful 

 ich the surface soil is kept loose and 

 powdery, will afl"ord the necessary conservation-of- 

 moisture mulch, and will give results most gratifying 

 to the cultivator. 



During a dry summer, mulching has a wonderful 

 effect upon trees. In a natural stale the soil over the 

 feeding roots of trees receive an annual mulch each 

 autumn by the falling leaves, and this suggests a like 

 or equivalent treatment when planted in gardens or 

 pleasure grounds. In mulching trees it must be kept 

 in mind that the material should be spread as wide as 

 the branches extend, as the vast majority of the feeding 

 roots are at the tips of the outlying root-branches. 

 Recently planted trees especially benefit from being 

 kept mulched during the summer, as they are very 

 liable to suffer through lack of sufficient moisture. 



Tulip " The Fawn 



One of Mr. Hartland's May-flowering (or Cottage) tulips, a varietal 

 form of T. gesneriana. Colour— a white ground shaded with pink 

 and yellow. Photographed in the Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin. 



hoeingj 



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