BULBOUS FLOWERS 



HARDY bulbous flowers are a sheet-anchor for the beginner, 

 who need merely plant the bulbs in the autumn, and await 

 results. Their fresh beauty and cheapness should make them 

 more popular than they are even in these days of general 

 gardening, and those with greater opportunities of painting 

 beautiful pictures than are provided by the mixed border or 

 the ordinary flower-bed, may enjoy the Daffodils and other 

 early flowers in meadow, in shrubbery margin, and beneath 

 trees in the orchard. It is only in recent years that we have 

 learnt how beautiful many of the hardy flowers are, and 

 especially those that have bulbous roots, when planted out in 

 grassy and other half-wild places. The nature lessons that 

 lay before us in meadow and woodland were long unheeded, 

 and yet they were patiently awaiting for just appreciation, 

 The Fritillaries and Daffodils of our strong-soiled meadows, 

 the blue Hyacinths and purple Orchis of our woodlands, the 

 Snowflakes of the river banks, these and others in our own 

 land, and to travellers the Poet's Narcissus of the Alpine 

 meadow, the sheets of other Daffodils in Pyrenean moun- 

 tain valleys, the Crocuses and Cyclamens of southern Italy, 

 and many another foreign bulb familiar only in our gardens, 

 were all waiting to teach us a lesson. All these good plants, 

 though known to us for garden use, had never been utilised 

 to the full of their ornamental capacity until we were taught 

 to have them in bold plantings outside the garden proper, in 

 wider spaces, where they not only could show a much larger 

 measure of beauty, but were safe from the continual dis- 

 turbance that bulbs must suffer when grown in close associa- 

 tion with other plants. 



It is only now, since we have learnt to plant our bulbs 

 boldly in such ways, that we can see the full beauty of their 

 effect in the mass, and can enjoy the pictorial aspects of the 

 flower-enriched landscape. 



Of all bulbous plants the Daffodils must rank the highest 

 in their willingness to enliven wood and meadow-land. Not 

 only do they show at their best when so grown, but such 

 treatment also suits them admirably, for many kinds that are 

 tender or unsatisfactory in gardens will grow willingly in the 



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