120 JOTTINGS OF A GENTLEMAN GARDENER 



upwards. It is very important that the holes should be 

 large and flat bottomed, otherwise the bulbs will be 

 " hung " ; that is, suspended with an air-space below, 

 which is extremely bad for them. 



Daffodils should be put in so deep that their tops are 

 about 4 ins. from the surface ; tulips, 3-5 ins. ; crocuses, 

 4 ins. ; and other bulbs twice or thrice their own depth. 

 Tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths may be planted 5-8 ins. 

 apart, but crocuses, jonquils, scillas, anemones, chionodoxas, 

 fritillarias, ixias, montbretias, etc., may be set in groups 

 much closer. 



After they are planted they need little in the way of 

 culture, except that the ground should be hoed once or 

 twice a few weeks later, and again after they have appeared, 

 in order to keep the soil round them open and sweet. 



Bulbs should have dead flowers removed, and when 

 spring is over should be lifted and laid in, preferably in 

 a North border, to finish their growth. Then, after a 

 few weeks, they can be dug up, sorted, cleaned, and stored 

 in bags for replanting in the borders or "naturalising," 

 as described in the next chapter, in the following autumn. 

 Bulbs grown indoors should be treated in the same way, 

 and planted in the borders, or far better, naturalised in 

 the manner described in the following chapter. 



Colour Possibilities : I once saw a garden in which 

 each sort of bulb had a separate bed to itself. There was 

 a bed of blue hyacinths, one of red, one of pink, and one 

 of white. Then there were beds for Cottage, Early, May 

 flowering and other tulips, kept in their separate colours ; 

 beds containing separate colours of crocuses, and separate 

 sorts of daffodils and narcissus. 



I must say I liked this arrangement, but I could not 

 help thinking that the effect would have been much better 

 if the beds had not been scattered over the lawn as they 

 were, but had been together ; or even if the patches of 

 separate colours had been planted in a long border. Colour 

 gardening with bulbs is no more difficult than with her- 

 baceous plants, so long as the descriptions of the colours 



