28 THE PARLOR GARDENER. 



If you like crocuses, and if you do not, you 

 are too hard to please, for there is not a spring 

 flowering plant fresher or prettier than the cro- 

 cus, you must continue to water them after the 

 bloom. Their leaves, of a fine green marked 

 throughout their length with a white line, will 

 not be amiss as part of the decoration of your 

 mantel-piece garden. When the leaves begin to 

 turn yellow, you must cease entirely to water 

 them ; but you must not take up the crocus 

 roots. They must be left in the dry earth until 

 next year. They will keep there very well, sur- 

 rounded by their young family ; for they pro- 

 duce every year a certain number of little ones, 

 which will bloom in their first spring. These 

 bulbs ought only to be taken up every three 

 years, and then for the purpose of separating the 

 clusters ; without which the pots would be too 

 full there would not be nourishment for the 

 whole family. When managed in this manner, 

 the tufts of forced crocuses are more beautiful 

 the second year than the first, and still more 

 beautiful the third year ; after which you must 

 renew the plantings, 



