212 POPULAR GARDEN FLOWERS 



we should pot them by the end of October, and use 

 a fertile compost, such as fibrous loam three parts, 

 decayed manure and leaf mould one part each, and 

 sand in a quantity equal to about one-eighth of the 

 whole. Sand should always be used very liberally for 

 Dutch bulbs, they practically grow in it at home in 

 Holland. 



Pots four and a half to five and a half inches across 

 the top, or the size known as forty-eight's, are quite 

 large enough, even for big bulbs. Large pots are un- 

 suitable. They hold so much soil that the plants grow 

 too strongly to flower well, for, singular though it may 

 seem, it is possible to have leaf at the expense of bloom. 

 The soil should be moist when used, and it should be 

 pressed firmly on to the drainage crocks without being 

 made downright hard. The pot need hardly be more than 

 half-filled at first. Make a hollow in the centre of the 

 soil, sprinkle in a little sand, place the bulb in position, 

 and then fill in soil round it, making it as firm as the 

 under soil. When the pot is finished the soil should 

 be an inch below the brim of the pot, and the tip of 

 the bulb should be exposed to the extent of about half 

 an inch. 



The amateur sometimes complains of bulbs rising 

 out of the soil, as though thrust upward by their own 

 roots. That is what actually happens, and it is generally 

 due to too hard a soil in conjunction with exposure. 

 The grower must try to strike the happy mean between 

 hardness and looseness, and he must plunge his pots in 

 cocoa-nut fibre refuse for six or eight weeks after potting, 

 heaping the material over them to a depth of four or 

 five inches. This checks top growth, but not root 

 action, and the foundation of success is laid in a healthy 

 root system in advance of stem and leaves. Without 



