BULBS 



45 



Hyacinths are loved by everybody. The poorest townsman 

 knows what "iercins" are, because he sees them in large beds in 

 the parks of London and provincial cities. The peasant widow 

 grows some in water for the window of her little sitting-room. 

 In pots, in glasses, in the soil of the open garden, the Hyacinth 

 is equally at home. 



We speak of the Hyacinth as a Dutch bulb, not because it 

 originated in Holland, for it is an Eastern plant, but because it 

 is one of the plants specially cultivated on a 

 vast scale for commercial purposes in Holland. 

 The land between Leyden and Haarlem is 

 particularly suited to Hyacinth culture. The 

 sand is cut away until a level a few feet 

 above the peat-bed is reached, and a site is 

 thus secured which is well supplied with sub- 

 soil moisture an essential to successful culti- 

 vation. The sand is enriched with cow manure. 

 Any cool, moist soil in England will grow 

 Hyacinths well, and people make a serious 

 mistake who suppose that it is sand which is Uppe B r 

 the principal reason for the success in Holland, 

 and consequently attempt to grow Hyacinths 

 in sand in Great Britain, without a moisture- 

 holding stratum beneath it. We have grown the finest of 

 Hyacinths out of doors in the south of England, but it was not 

 in dry sand ; it was in cool, moist clay. Lovers of Hyacinths 

 should remember that water is the life blood of these plants, and 

 never stint them for moisture, whether indoors or out. 



For greenhouse decoration, large, sound bulbs, firm at the base, 

 should be put into 5-inch pots in October or November, in a 

 compost of fibrous loam three parts, leaf-mould and decayed manure 

 one part each, and a tenth of the whole of coarse sand. The soil 

 should be moist when used, and pressed into a fairly firm, but 



\ 



POTTING HYACINTHS 



Lower figure. A, shows 

 crown of Hyacinth B, 

 above the surface of soil 

 in pot. 



