210 POPULAR GARDEN FLOWERS 



as a commercial venture. They succeeded so well that 

 bulb-growing became one of the national industries of 

 Holland. 



In view of the splendid quality of the Hyacinths 

 grown in this country, it is often suggested that the 

 industry could be established here with equally good 

 results. This is doubtful. The best plants grown by 

 British cultivators are equal to the best of the Dutch, 

 but it has to be remembered that they came from 

 developed bulbs. To produce the bulbs is another 

 matter. Of the great triumvirate of bulbous flowers, 

 Tulips, Daffodils, and Hyacinths, the two first increase 

 readily in this country, but Hyacinths do not. The 

 reproductive systems of the three plants are the same, 

 in the main all form fresh bulbs annually ; but the 

 offspring of Hyacinths is much smaller than that of 

 Tulips and Daffodils, and much more time is required 

 to grow them to a saleable size. The largest bulb of a 

 set of Tulip progeny is nearly, or quite, as big as the 

 parent. The largest of the Daffodil offsets are big 

 enough to bloom the year following their formation. 

 But the offsets of Hyacinths are very small, and several 

 years are required to get them to a flowering size. The 

 grower observes them springing from the base of the bulbs 

 in autumn. Sometimes one will have become as big as a 

 Scilla bulb, but concave on one side, where it nestles 

 close to the parent, by November. The offsets should 

 be picked off before the bulb is put into the soil. 



The Dutch growers can develop flowering bulbs more 

 quickly than we can, and thus have a commercial advan- 

 tage which enables them to undersell British growers, 

 but it is not so with Daffodils and Tulips. Consequently, 

 while we find that the Hyacinth trade remains almost 

 entirely in the h^nds of the Dutch, that of Tulips 



