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for a living their crop of Spring bonnets, like the bulbs 
they raise, would soon become so diminutive that they 
would not leng persist in the work, but at once yield the 
palm with gratitude to the Dutch. In the Spring, the 
most delightful period of all gardening operations, when 
the Hyacinth is in bloom in your neighbor’s garden and 
you catch its perfume across your fence, you will at once 
decide to get some, and perhaps send the order right 
away. This is a mistake, for it is disappointing to you 
and annoying to the florist, for the order for these bulbs 
eannot be satisfactoriiy filled in Spring. Fall is the time 
to buy Hyacinths, say from September Ist up to the mid- 
dle of December, and if you cannot make it convenient 
to buy them at this time, do not buy them atall. Every- 
body wants to get some when they see them in bloom in 
the Spring, but as soon as they quit blooming and the 
proper season at hand for planting, they are generally 
apt to be forgotten, and many promised purchase of 
Hyacinths in the Fall goes unfilled until the fragrant 
reminders again pierce the earth in Spsing, and then the 
promise is more emphatically renewed, and the chances 
are if they should live long enough they may finally get 
a bed of Hyacinths. It is not necessary to take up the 
Hyacinths as before directed, unless you wish to cultivate 
the ground and plant something else in it for the Sum- 
mer. They will remain in the ground from year to year 
and flower each Spring, but the blooms will be small and 
they degenerate in this way very rapidly. Weare often 
asked if it injures the Hyacinth to “ pull’’ the bloom, to 
which we say no; that part of the stem that comes up 
from the bulb when the bloom is pulled is of no use to 
the bulb, as it is an integral part of the bloom, and if not . 
taken away with the bloom, will die, as it has no func- 
tions to perform after the flower spike is cut away. 
