SEPTEMBER: FIFTH WEEK 253 



or in a trench covered with litter and leaves enough to 

 prevent hard freezing. 



Before putting them away, every pot and flat should be 

 carefully labelled. Don't trust to your memory! 



If no cellar is available and you have not a cold-frame, 

 dig a trench or a square with dirt sides some 12" to 18" 

 deep, but large enough to accommodate your flats or 

 pots or pans. They can then be placed in this in just the 

 order in which you want to take them into the house, 

 so that you can start at one end of the trench and remove 

 them in order as required. Dry coal ashes make an ex- 

 cellent covering, or soil can be used. Either should be 

 about 8" deep, and on the approach of freezing weather, 

 leaves and litter enough to prevent freezing should be 

 placed over this. Bulbs stored thus will need no further 

 attention until time to bring them in. If they are kept in a 

 cellar or in a closet they should be looked at occasionally 

 and watered if the soil gets too dry; keeping them well 

 covered with sphagnum moss will retard evaporation. 



The most prolific source of failure with bulbs is in start- 

 ing the tops before sufficient root growth has been made. 

 The different kinds, and even the different varieties of the 

 same kind, vary considerably in the time required for root 

 development before they should be started. As a general 

 rule, the longer they can be held back, the stronger the 

 root development and the better flowers will be. Roman 

 hyacinths and other early things that are wanted in bloom 

 for a special time, such as Thanksgiving or Christmas, can 

 be brought in after six or eight weeks. But tulips, and the 

 later varieties of hyacinths and narcissus, will do better 

 with ten or twelve weeks, so that the bulbs planted in the 

 latter part of September or the first of October should not 

 be taken in before December. 



In removing the bulbs to the house, they should at first 

 be given a temperature of only forty to fifty degrees and 

 kept in a somewhat subdued light, some room that is not 

 much used, with a north window being an ideal place. They 

 should be given a thorough watering and allowed to re- 



