2 ' THE BOOK OF BULBS 



general character of the bulbous plants. In addition to 

 this, many of these bulbous plants will thrive much 

 better in grass than in a cultivated border, where there 

 is often too much bare soil, and where other flowers of 

 encroaching nature can injure them. Nearly all hardy 

 bulbs do well in grass if the place is properly prepared 

 for them by removing a portion of the turf, forking up 

 the earth beneath, and adding fresh soil when it is too 

 poor, and then replacing the turf. One thing must be 

 remembered as a sine-qua-non, and this is, that on no 

 account must the grass be cut until the plants have 

 ripened their leaves. This will be shown by the foliage 

 becoming yellow. Neglect of this has been the cause 

 of much disappointment, and it is thus advisable that 

 the bulbs should not be planted where a neatly kept 

 grass plot is wanted early in the year. In planting the 

 bulbs, they ought not to be arranged in regular lines, 

 but in masses or informal groups. As good a plan as 

 any to follow in planting in masses in the wilder parts 

 of the grounds, is to throw the bulbs down from the 

 hand, and to plant them where they fall. A good lesson 

 will be given by a glance at a long-established plantation 

 of Snowdrops or of the wild Scilla nutans, where these 

 will be seen to have formed charming groups and masses 

 of greater beauty than any formal arrangement would 

 give. 



ARRANGEMENT IN BORDERS 



It is more difficult to arrange bulbs in borders in 

 pleasing ways, and in such a manner as to harmonise or 

 contrast in colouring with other flowers in bloom at the 

 same time. One desirable way is not to keep all the 

 early flowering bulbs near the front of the border, as 

 one would naturally do, because of their dwarf habit, 

 but to plant them so as to give balance in the border at 



