BULBS 271 



Every hardy border ought to have permanent bulbs on it, 

 especially Darwin tulips and daffodils, and when these die down 

 there should be something to cover the ground. So this year I 

 am trying all the pinks I can get hold of and all the stonecrops or 

 sedums, which the English use so much for this purpose. And I 

 hope some of my readers will get seeds of rock-cress or plant in 

 permanent bulb beds any thrifts or mossy little plants that are 



available . 



BULB COLLECTORS' GARDENS 



I hope we shall see the collecting spirit develop wonderfully 

 in America during the next ten years, for there is a heap of fun in 

 it and it will do a lot of good. A man who grows fifty varieties of 

 daffodils in a separate garden has something his friends and neigh- 

 bours are bound to talk about. 



A separate garden containing fifty varieties of irises is very 

 pretty and a life-long delight, but fifty kinds of lilies would not 

 make a beautiful garden. 



If peonies are bulbs, then fifty varieties of peonies make a 

 lovely bulb garden. 



But the oldest and most famous garden of this kind is the 

 tulip fancier's collection, which is still a beautiful institution in 

 England. We have nothing like it. The beds usually have iron 

 railings around them which support canvas, for tulips are easily 

 spattered by a rain. The fancier's tulips are the rectified or 

 variegated tulips, of which we know comparatively little. Any 

 one who wishes to learn about this delightful hobby should send 

 for a little pamphlet called "The English Tulip and Its History," 

 by Rev. F. Horner and others. It costs about fifty cents to import. 



It is unlikely that the English tulip fancier's point of view will 

 ever become popular here, but American collections of Darwin 



