October Looking Forward 



becoming dry. This interjection, though seemingly 

 malapropos, is not really so, for bulbs are very liable to 

 fail if watering is performed injudiciously. Let the soil be 

 moistened through as soon as potting is completed ; 

 the bulbs will then need no more until they are taken 

 out of the ashes. 



Gardening books always take too much for granted, I 

 am told, and that is probably true. For instance, I 

 am taking for granted that the reader has a supply of 

 sifted ashes avilable. If however he has them not, he 

 should not, on that account, relinquish the idea of growing 

 bulbs in pots. They will form roots quite satisfactorily 

 in a frame which is covered with a mat, or at the foot of 

 a wall facing west or north, especially if a little soil 

 is placed over them. Finally, in the absence of wall 

 or frame, one may dig a small trench in the garden, 

 place the pots of bulbs therein, and cover them with the 

 soil that was taken out. If this method is adopted, a few 

 worms will probably find their way into the pots, but 

 they can easily be induced to depart by watering the 

 bulbs with a little lime water. The two chief details to 

 observe hi potting bulbs are, not to make the soil very 

 firm beneath them (otherwise, as they form roots, they 

 will be forced out of the soil), and to mix sand freely 

 with the compost ; this ought to consist of turf loam 

 with which a little leaf soil is mixed. As to the number 

 of bulbs to be accommodated in pots of varying sizes, this 

 is easily determined. * Small kinds such as Crocus, Squill, 

 Grape Hyacinth and Snowdrop may be put about an 

 inch or rather more apart. One Hyacinth bulb can 

 be grown in a 5-inch pot or three in a 6-inch pot, and the 

 same rule applies to the larger Daffodils. In a 6-inch pot 

 one may often plant five, and in a 5-inch pot three 

 Tulip bulbs. Bulbs of different varieties of Daffodils, 

 Tulips and Hyacinths vary considerably, and one 

 must be guided by their size. It is not necessary 

 that bulbs grown in flower - pots should be wholly 



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