Bulbs 



125 



A bed of squills covered with leaves for the winter 



flowering time is more regular as a whole than if planted with the dibber. 

 The layer of sand has its advantage, inasmuch as it provides drainage at the 

 base of the bulbs and minimises the chances of decay from contact with 

 manure in the soil and from water 

 lodging immediately beneath them. 

 The writer has seen good beds of 

 bulbs obtained by both methods, 

 but the last one described is pos- 

 sibly the surer one. 



The ground having been made 

 ready, as previously described, 

 and marked off for the various 

 sorts if a design is to be planted, 

 all that is necessary is to use a blunt stick and make a hole large enough to 

 receive the bulb and deep enough to have the crown three to four inches below 

 the surface, and place the bulb in it. Cover the bulbs, smooth off the bed, 

 and the work is done. The proper distance for planting is six inches apart. 

 The hyacinth referred tc here is the common "Dutch" kind so familiar to 

 all. They can be obtained in separate colours or m special named varieties. 

 They are in two leading classes — single- and double-flowered. For garden 

 planting the single-flowered sorts are to be preferred, as they are more 

 graceful and the spikes are not as heavy, so they stand up better. It 

 may be found necessary to support the flower-spikes with Hght sticks. 



Ne.xt to the hyacinth in importance comes the tuhp. The directions 



for planting the hyacinth apply to 

 the tulip also. There is a greater 

 variety of these than in the hya- 

 cinth — single and double, early and 

 late, tall and dwarf ; beware of get- 

 ting them mixed in the same bed. 

 The leading dealers now offer a 

 class of "bedding tulips," and 

 these, generally speaking, are the 

 best to plant in beds. An effective 

 method which has recently come into vogue for planting tulips and hyacinths 

 is to cut fancy scroll designs out of the sod, wide enough to hold two or 

 three rows, and plant the bulbs to follow the design. 



The same bed in bloom 



