SUMMER TREATMENT OF BULBS 189 



Another reason for growing bulb beds out of main sight is that 

 one feels freer to use the mulches which are of great advantage both 

 winter and summer. After planting spring bulbs in the fall a ground- 

 cover of dead leaves, rotten straw or old coarse manure will prevent 

 surface-packing by heavy rains, and mulching is also good for summer 

 and fall bloomers, because it holds moisture from flying away and 

 helps to get full duty from irrigation water. Fresh manure should be 

 used very thinly, if at all; it is not usually good for the growth of 

 bulbs. 



Summer Treatment of Winter Blooming Bulbs. Still another 

 reason for not making bulb plantations too prominent is the fact that 

 the leaf growth after blooming should be allowed to mature in a 

 natural way because this foliage is still discharging its function of 

 storing food in the bulb for its next blooming or for the growth of its 

 offsets. When the top dries down, this work is complete and the rub- 

 bish may be raked off, or allowed to remain prostrate as a mulch or 

 cover to check evaporation. 



And that leads to the remark that the proper dormancy, which a 

 bulb should have after its top-growth dies, is not desiccation. In our 

 dry summer climate too much emphasis is sometimes placed upon 

 withholding water from ground containing dormant bulbs. The advice 

 may be good to some native bulbs which are born to hard-drying, but 

 all others do not prosper by it. Many of the bulbs we grow are native 

 to moist climates where there are summer rains after blooming, or to 

 moist soils in our own state. Therefore do not let the soil dry out 

 and bake like a rock. Loosen the surface a little after blooming, cover 

 with a mulch and put on a little water once in a while, unless you see 

 that the soil is prevented from becoming absolutely dry through some 

 natural soil-moisture movement or through lateral seepage from ad- 

 jacent irrigated areas. 



But the surface soil over the resting bulbs need not be left to itself 

 nor covered only with a neat mulch. It is quite possible to grow 

 shallow-rooting covering plants and the occasional summer watering 

 given these plants will keep the soil right for the bulbs. When the 

 spent foliage of the winter and spring flowering bulbs is cleared away, 

 give the surface a good raking and scatter the seed of mignonette, 

 nasturtiums, summer poppies, or some other rapid summer-grower 

 which you like. The bed becomes a summer ornament and can be 

 enjoyed until September or October, when everything ought to be 

 raked clean and a thin covering of good manure spread to be leached 

 out by the fall rains. It is of course possible to scatter seeds with 

 this fall working and thus bring up eschscholtzias or other winter 

 bloomers. The writer really enjoys the California poppy foliage 



