190 CALIFORNIA GARDEN FLOWERS 



among the stiff narcissus leaves, but it would probably be better to 

 grow plants like alyssum, nemophila, etc., which do not root so deeply 

 as the poppies. 



Shall the Bulbs Be Undisturbed? All these suggestions are based 

 upon the affirmation that the bulbs shall be given their special places 

 and should be allowed to remain in the ground to take their resting. 

 We are convinced that such is the proper treatment for nearly all the 

 bulbs the working amateur is likely to grow only digging them up 

 once in three to five years to separate and replant singly the bunched- 

 bulbs which will be crowding each other. Some modification of this 

 suggestion may occur in the later discussion of particular plants. 



Protection for Bulbs. Although dormant bulbs -are reasonably free 

 from injury by ground-vermin, one must always be on the guard 

 against gophers, which seem to have an appetite for bulbs which in- 

 creases with the price you pay for them. One may conclude that 

 he has no gophers on the place until he buys a lot of costly lily bulbs 

 which are cake to them, -although they will eat others also. To 

 make a bed for a small bunch of bulbs you may do as advised for 

 carnations on page 151. To protect a larger bed, dig a trench all 

 around it eighteen inches deep. Take 3-ft. chicken fence netting, one- 

 inch mesh, and cut it lengthwise into two strips eighteen inches wide. 

 Stand this up against one side of the trench with the selvage up and 

 the jagged wire-ends down. Fill in the trench so that the selvage will 

 be just out of sight under the surface. Gophers cannot get through it 

 and efforts to dig under cause the wire-ends to catch in their backs. 

 Such wire is, however, of rather short life through rusting. A Fresno 

 grower makes a permanent barrier around bulb-beds by digging a 

 trench around the bed and filling it up with tin cans, bottles, broken 

 dishes, etc. These things should be buried anyhow, for it is abom- 

 inable to load them on a wagon and dump them at a distance on the 

 roadside because of laziness. 



BULBS CHIEFLY COMMENDED IN CALIFORNIA. 



We do not assume the function of specifying what bulbs an ama- 

 teur should grow. We would probably differ in tastes, and besides we 

 are not sure if we would choose the same bulbs if working in places 

 different from that in which our experience and observation chiefly lie. 

 We shall try to indicate, rather, the bulbs which our various sources 

 of information commend for California and advise the beginner to go 

 to it arid decide for himself which bulbs best suit his conditions of 

 climate, soil and moisture, his moods and his money. 



What to do with the various bulbs and when to do it, may appear 

 in connection with the comments on the bulbs which will be men- 

 tioned later. Suggestions will also be found among the details for 



