Round the Year in the Garden 



meal is an excellent fertiliser to use at this season. It 

 should be scattered on the soil at the rate of about 4 oz. 

 to the square yard and then forked in. During the last 

 week or so the tufts of perennials have made marked 

 progress, enabling one easily to see where the plants are, 

 and incidentally allowing the soil between them to be 

 turned over with a fork. This work does a lot of good in 

 aerating and " sweetening " the soil, and if bonemeal is 

 mixed in at the rate advised, the plants will grow all the 

 more strongly for its help. 



Bulbs tor Spring Planting. The planting of bulbs 

 is naturally associated with garden work in autumn, and 

 that is the season at which most bulbs are put in. Some 

 kinds are commonly planted in spring, in February or 

 early March, and among them are flowers of great value 

 and indispensable to every garden. The Cape Hyacinth 

 (Hyacinth us candicans) is a handsome plant that forms 

 a tuft of large, rather untidy leaves, and in late summer 

 bears white, drooping, bell-shaped flowers on a tall, stout 

 stem : the bulbs should be planted about 3 inches deep. 

 It makes a most handsome lawn bed for August. Among 

 Lilies (Liliums) that are usually planted in spring the 

 Golden-rayed Lily (auratum) is perhaps the greatest 

 favourite, though as a rule the bulbs are not long-lived 

 unless in peaty soil among shrubs ; there they are likely 

 to prove more lasting. The finest varieties of this Lily 

 are rubro-vittatum, marked with a reddish band down 

 each petal, and platyphyllum, white, spotted with crim- 

 son; these are, however, expensive, each bulb costing 

 twice or three times as much as one of the typical sort, 

 which varies considerably, some forms showing deeper 

 colouring and more spots than others. The Japanese Lily 

 (speciosum) is another kind that is largely grown, and of 

 this there are several handsome varieties. Speciosum 

 Kraetzeri is a lovely white Lily, Melpomene is heavily 

 marked with crimson, and rubrum is spotted and tinged, 

 though less heavily, with rose and crimson. 



164 



