FORCING BULBS 55 



do we condemn it or deny that their cultivation, so planted, 

 is profitable, but we would prefer to place no handicap on our 

 tomatoes or adopt any system that would deprive us of the full 

 and unfettered use of the whole of the soil in which we grow them. 

 The Spanish Iris ( Iris hispanica) is very inexpensive to buy, 

 and market growers find they can afford to scrap their bulbs 

 and buy a new stock every year. Yet the flowers usually fetch 

 a good price if of the correct colours. Cultivation is compara- 

 tively simple. Being boxed, they are covered with ashes, 

 and follow the usual routine, but they are not taken indoors 

 till the days of early spring. Thus they do not clash with the 

 other bulbs. 



GI,ADIOU Coi,vnjji 



The bulbs of this hardy gladioli are about the size of a crocus 

 bulb ; the flowers are produced in long slender sprays of the 

 most approved fashion. It is another of those bulbs of which 

 we could not grow too many, yet it is not taken up very widely. 

 The white variety (Alba) is the only one worth taking up on a 

 large scale, and this pays very well as a rule, the sprays being ready 

 sellers. They should be boxed in August or September, covered 

 for a time, and when started, put into a temperate house. When 

 the growths are 2 inches high they might be taken to a warmer 

 house, not too warm, and if attended to in the matter of watering, 

 and perhaps feeding, should bloom from mid-March onward. 



Sandy loamy soil suits them, with a little superphosphate 

 added. When indoors they should, like the freesias, be placed 

 in the full light and near to the glass. The foliage will probably 

 need some supporting, but if well grown it is sturdier and stronger 

 than that of the freesia. 



After the period of bloom is over, the bulbs must be 

 thoroughly ripened, not neglected, and when quite dry, stored 

 away for planting again in August. The red variety is worth 

 growing, but only in moderate quantity, the treatment and the 

 season being identical with the whites. The salmon-coloured 

 variety will grow in popularity, and should be tried. 



