SUMMER BLOOMING BULBS. 

 By Isaac S. Hendrickson, Floral Park, New York. 



Delivered before the Society, February 4, 1911. 



I do not presume to bring to you anything particularly new or 

 startling in this talk about summer blooming bulbs, but perhaps 

 together we can bring out some interesting points on a subject that 

 is old yet ever new, for while bulbs are simply bulbs, always have 

 been, and always will be, requiring about the same treatment in 

 the way of culture, etc. that has been in vogue for all time, when 

 we once take up the subject and delve into species, varieties, 

 freaks, etc., there seems to ever be something new. It is like 

 walking in a rose garden on a morning in June ; as we walk we see 

 the same kind of roses we have seen year after year, yet when we 

 stop to examine our favorite Jack, or Mrs. Laing, or Frau Karl 

 Druschki, we are led to exclaim "was there ever such exquisite 

 beauty revealed to any one before this particular morning." 



There is something very fascinating about bulbs to nearly every 

 flower lover, and rightfully so, for no class of plant life can give 

 more enjoyment. There seems to be something almost human and 

 immortal in a bulb as we handle and examine it, and find that very 

 often the perfect form of the future flower is wrapped up and 

 hidden in the heart of the bulb. When we buy seed from the 

 seedsman, it requires almost a professional gardener's skill to bring 

 forth the flower, but not so the bulb, for when you receive it from 

 the hands of the grower it already contains within itself the food 

 for the future flower. I suppose that nearly everyone in this room 

 today has cut a hyacinth bulb in half and discovered the tiny blos- 

 som in perfect form ready to push out in perfection of bloom when 

 submitted to proper conditions. I shall never forget my sense of 

 wonder when I first discovered this secret, and I have ever since 

 held a peculiar feeling for a bulb. In speaking of summer flowering 



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