THE BULB BOOK 



place, and to admit of the beds being redug and manured if 

 necessary. 



Having decided to take the bulbs out of the ground the operation 

 is perhaps best performed with a fork. There would be too much 

 danger of chopping the bulbs up if a spade were used. The tool 

 should be driven down straight, so as to get it well below the bulbs, 

 and the soil should be lifted and turned over or thrown forward very 

 much in the same way as when digging potatoes. The bulbs should 

 be picked out by hand into baskets or shallow boxes, in which they 

 can be afterwards taken away and spread out to dry. In this way 

 the soil can be removed from them easily in due course, and the 

 process of grading the bulbs into the different sizes can be performed 

 more readily. Bulbs or tubers lifted in the autumn like Gladiolus, 

 Montbretias, Tigridias, Watsonias, etc., may be stored in dry soil, 

 sand, or fibre, and kept in a frost-proof cellar until the spring. The 

 bulbs of such plants as Tulips, Daffodils, Hyacinths, Crocuses, etc., 

 that are taken up in spring or early summer, may be spread out in 

 layers on shelves made of slating battens, or they may be stored away 

 in shallow wooden trays that are now so much in use, and are very 

 convenient for storing large numbers of bulbs into a small space. It 

 will be necessary to keep bulbs of this character in cool, shady, and 

 well-ventilated sheds, and it will be better if only one, or at the most 

 two, layers of bulbs certainly of the best bulbs should be placed 

 on each shelf. 



Bulbous or tuberous plants grown in pots may be allowed to 

 remain in the old soil during the dormant period. The pots, however, 

 should be placed on their side and stacked away on top of each other 

 as shown in the diagram. In this way, if placed under 

 the stage of a greenhouse, the dripping water from the ooooo 

 plants on the shelves will not touch the bulbs and cause 

 them to rot. When the period of growth arrives, and this is 

 generally indicated by the new green growth appearing at the 

 tips of the bulbs, the bulbs may be shaken out of the old soil, and 

 repotted into a fresh compost according to the instructions given 

 under each genus. 



By treating deciduous bulbous and tuberous plants as described 

 above, they can be kept for many years in excellent condition. 



18 



