CHAPTER VI. . 



HARDY BULBOUS FLOWERS. 



AT no distant time lists of these things were mostly looked at for 

 the sake of getting a few bulbs to force, but that day is past, at least 

 for all who now see the great part which hardy bulbous and tuberous 

 plants must take in the outdoor gardens of the future. Since those 

 days the hills of California and of Japan alone have given us a noble 

 Lily garden, and the plants of this order in cultivation now form a 

 lovely host. We are not nearly so likely to want novelties as know- 

 ledge of how to make effective use of the nobler plants, such as the 

 Narcissus, the glory of the spring, as the Lily is of the summer 

 garden. 



We may indeed be often tempted with Zephyr flowers, and Ixias 

 and other plants, beautiful in warmer countries than ours, but delicate 

 here, and only living with us as the result of care ; but there are 

 so many lovely things from the mountains and plains of the northern 

 world, as hardy as the wild Hyacinths of British woods, that our 

 search will be more for the nobler materials and how to make artistic 

 use of them than in quest of novelty. 



Who of those who remember the Orange and White Lilies of all 

 English and Irish gardens would have looked for the splendid Lilies 

 that have come to us within less than a genera- 

 Lilies, tion ? For size, and form, and lovely colour they 

 surpass all we had ever dreamt of even among 

 tropical flowers. The variety is great, but the main thing for all 

 who care for them is how to possess their beauty with the least 

 amount of care ; and, happily, the question has been solved for many 

 handsome kinds by planting them in the peat beds that were made 

 at first wholly in the interest of the American shrubs, as some of 

 the finest Lilies thrive admirably in these. Nor need we neglect 

 the mixed borders because we have new ways for our Lilies, as several 



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