478 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



best. Dahlia roots will winter very well 

 where beet roots or mangold wurzel will 

 winter in good condition. 



Gladioli. — The bulbs or corms of these 

 beautiful showy flowers that have become 

 such popular favoritiss with all flower lovers, 

 are perhaps the easiest of all the summer 

 flowering bulbs to winter through, if only 

 ordinary care be given them. The roots of 

 these should be dug up before severe frosts, 

 or as soon as the tops have become browned 

 slightly from frost. The tops should not 

 be cut off when the roots are dug up, but 

 should be left on just as they are dug until 

 after the corms or roots have been dried fair-, 

 ly well, when they can be cut off about four 

 or five inches above the bulb or corm. A 

 dry cool room or shed is a good place to dry 

 ofif gladioli roots in. They should be spread 

 out thinly, tops and all, on the board floor 

 or on benches or in shallow boxes for two or 

 three weeks, when the tops can be cut off as 

 before mentioned and the corms or bulbs can 

 be put into shallow boxes and placed in a 

 fairly dry room in a temperature of about 40 

 or 50 degrees, where they can be left until 

 spring. If the room where they are kept 

 is very hot and dry the corms should be cov- 

 ered with dry sand, or dry sawdust or char- 

 coal, as an excessively dry temperature will 



weaken the vitality of the corm and some- 

 times prevent it from starting into growth 

 again at all. A very damp position must 

 also be avoided, as this will induce mildew 

 and possibly rot. I have frequently win- 

 tered gladioli roots very successfully by ty- 

 ing them together by the tops and hanging 

 them to the joists in a fairly warm moist 

 cellar but have had the best success with 

 them by packing them in shallow boxes n 

 dry sand and placing them in a fairly dry 

 warm room or basement. An upstairs room 

 or attic in a house where a furnace or steam 

 boiler is used for heating purposes is often 

 too dry to keep gladioli roots successfully, 

 but in a house or room that is not over 

 heated they can usually be kept without any 

 very great care or attention. 



In conclusion I would say that in winter- 

 ing over any of these roots or bulbs I have 

 mentioned, care should be taken to avoid ex- 

 tremes, whether of heat or cold, dryness (.r 

 moisture. Try and give them as nearly as 

 possible the natural conditions they receive 

 when dormant in their native haunts, and 

 avoid intensifying these conditions too se- 

 verely, as is often done at the risk of losing 

 partially, or altogether perhaps, a valuable 

 collection of summer flowering roots. 



FLOWER AND PLANT LORE 



BY EDWARD TYRREJLL, TORONTO. 



CYCLAMEN PERSICUM, white, 

 with a bright claret purple blotch 

 at base, is the finest of the species 

 and the parent of all other varieties culti- 

 vated in pots. It is a native of Greece, 

 Palestine, and other parts of Syria, and ;vas 

 introduced into England in the middle of the 

 eighteenth century. I read with pleasure 

 the notes on the cyclamen by Mr. Wm. Ba- 

 con, of Orillia, encouraging those who have 



not already done so to try and grow these 

 beautiful flowers, for as he says, " they re- 

 spond with such a generous profusion of 

 bloorn to fnodrate care and cultivation." 



I had just been reading Dr. Hugh Mac- 

 Millan's book on the " Poetry of Plants " 

 (although there is not any of what is gener- 

 ally known as poetry in it), and his descrio- 

 tion of the cyclamen as he saw it growing in 

 its native country is so beautiful that I 



