52 VILLA GARDENING part i 



surpassed for beauty and magnificence. In the Lily, the Tulip, 

 and the Iris will be found unrivalled examples of gorgeous colouring, 

 that no painter's brush can approach for effectiveness. Many who 

 take up gardening as a hobby concentrate their labour and atten- 

 tion upon one family. Some select the Rose, others the Carnation 

 or the Tulip or Ranunculus. The Dahlia, the Hollyhock, and the 

 Chrysanthemum all come in for their share of admiration, and have 

 their votaries. But the garden of bulbs is better calcidated to 

 awaken interest of an absorbing character than most of the other 

 families I have named, the Rose alone excepted. Concentration is, 

 doubtless, the right course to adopt in all things where superiority 

 is aimed at. To fritter away time upon many things leads to 

 mediocrity in all. Besides, there is not the same love springing 

 up in the heart for things we only casually see, and whose life- 

 history or culture we only imperfectly understand. In bulb 

 culture we have an endless round of flowere. In the beginning 

 of the year the Aconites, the Snowdrops, the Cyclamens, and 

 Anemones can be gathered amid the snow. Then comes the 

 Crocus, the Narcissus, and Tulip, with still brighter and bolder 

 masses of colour ; the heavily-scented Hyacinth, the lowly but 

 lovely Scilla ; and then, as the days lengthen and the sun gathers 

 up his forces, the Lilies burst out in all their stateliness and 

 grandeur. AVith the approach of autumn comes the Gladiolus 

 and Colchicums, finishing off amid the snows of winter again with 

 the beautiful Sternbergia lutea. Besides these I have named, 

 there are other families less weU known but not less beautiful, 

 which spread their flowering time over many months — the beautiful 

 little Chionodoxa lucilse, in spring, the Alliums, Brodineas, the 

 Fritillarias, the Alstroemerias, and others which will be referred 

 to in a list at the end of this article. A garden where bulbs form 

 the chief feature cannot be surpassed in beauty and variety ; but 

 even such a garden should have other furniture, as a picture, how- 

 ever beautiful it may be, is not complete without a frame. The 

 effect of the most beautiful flowers is eidianced by a foil of con- 

 trasting materials. This being granted, as I think it will be, the 

 question arises in what way can we best arrange our bulb garden 

 so as to make the place suitable for their growth, and at the same 

 time bring out all their beauties 1 Nearly all the bulbs require 

 shelter ; for the most part their flowers are delicate and fragile, 

 and often, as in the Lily, their heads of blossom are too heavy for 

 their stems to bear without support, and if the winds catch hold of 

 their broad, massive petals, it disfigiu:es them sadly. A bed of 

 Lilies exposed to the full force of the wind wiU seldom be in a 

 presentable condition ; but when planted amid a sheltering bed of 



