Dog's-Tooth Violet Ferraria Freesia 



suitable for edging small beds in gardens where spring flowers are 

 systematically grown ; in fact, they are true ' spring bedders.' Autumn 

 is the proper time to plant the bulbs. But Dog's-tooth Violets are 

 also worth growing in pots, especially where an unheated ' Alpine 

 house ' is kept for plants of this class. Several bulbs may be put in 

 a pot of the 48-size. 



FERRARIA, or TIGRIDIA 



THE short-lived blossoms of the Tiger flower are most gorgeously 

 painted, and differ from everything else of the great family of Irids to 

 which they belong. When planted out on a dry sunny border, they 

 are quite hardy ; but on a damp soil they cannot be kept through the 

 winter. Still, the flowers are much finer from the border than when 

 grown in pots, and they present great variety, scarcely any two 

 plants amongst hundreds producing flowers exactly alike. A bed of 

 Tigridias makes an agreeable ornament in front of the window of 

 a breakfast-room, as the flowers are in a brilliant state in the early 

 hours of the day. 



FREESIA 



THE singularly graceful form and the delicious perfume of this 

 flower have made it an immense favourite ; and happily there is no 

 Cape bulb which can be grown with greater ease in the frame or cool 

 greenhouse. One characteristic is very marked, and it is the dispro- 

 portion between the small bulb and the fine flowers produced from it. 



Procure the bulbs as early in the autumn as possible, and lose 

 no time in potting them. Any light rich soil will answer, but that 

 which suits them best is composed of two parts loam, one of leaf- 

 mould, and one of peat, with enough sand or grit added to insure 

 drainage. Commence with pots of the right size, for the roots are 

 extremely brittle, and there must be no risk of injuring them by 

 re-potting. The 48-size will accommodate several bulbs. Place 

 under a south wall, and cover with ashes until top growth commences, 

 and then remove the covering. 



At the end of September transfer the pots to a cold frame, and 

 when the plants attain a height of four inches, support them with neat 

 sticks, which should not be inserted too near the bulbs. Watering 

 will require judgment, for too much moisture turns the foliage yellow. 



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