My Garden in Spring 



it worth their while to settle down and produce a good 

 flowering bulb for a second year. They are dumpy, easily 

 destroyed by the bad weather they are almost certain to 

 meet with in April, and need to be renewed or largely 

 reinforced annually from Dutch-grown stocks to give a 

 really good effect. I make an exception in favour of a few 

 of intermediate season of flowering combined with good 

 constitution that are neither dumpy nor difficult to keep, 

 and these I should not like to be without. They flower 

 about the last week of April and the first in May. The 

 variegated form of Yellow Prince that lives in Tom Tiddler's 

 ground is one. White Swan is fairly tall, and bears a 

 beautiful white flower good for borders or cutting. Thomas 

 Moore is an old favourite and a charming shade of soft 

 orange, and Couleur Cardinal is a fiery scarlet when fully 

 open, but in bud and when half expanded has a wonderful 

 plum-like bloom on its crimson external ground-colour. Mr. 

 Van Waveren once told me that he bought the stock of this 

 Tulip when it was first offered. It was one of his earliest 

 purchases, and he gave rather a high price for it. His 

 father, who was present at the sale, asked, " What fool has 

 bought that ? " and was very angry when he learnt that it 

 was his son. It proved to be a wise investment, however, 

 and has been for many years the best of all red Early Tulips. 

 When I can speak of a plant as the Tulipa something-or- 

 other it is of course more precious to my botanical mind, 

 and I should like to grow every species of Tulipa, even the 

 starry green and white early flowering ones such as biflora 

 and its near relations, one of which tries to make a floral 

 display in December, but has been so severely snubbed 

 by the Clerk of the Weather that I fear its courage is 

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