BULBOUS FLOWERS 97 



treatment also suits them admirably, for many kinds that are 

 tender or unsatisfactory in gardens will grow willingly in the 

 sheltering grass of field or copse, and make but slow and 

 steady increase, that seems to tend to more healthy repro- 

 duction than the unnatural stimulation of manured garden 

 ground. 



When one thinks of the great range of choice, of the 

 many kinds of Daffodils, of Snowdrops, of Scillas and their 

 allies, of Iris and Dog's Tooth Violet, of the early winter Aconite, 

 and the autumn Cyclamen, Crocus, and Colchicum ; of the 

 strong and stately Crown Imperials and Tulips of spring, and 

 the dainty Acis of latest autumn ; of Lilies, many of them 

 doing best in the wild ; when one thinks of all these, and 

 many others, one becomes aware that there is no lack of 

 material, but that it is only apathy in its utilisation that leaves 

 many a rough space in the garden outskirts bare and feature- 

 less when they might be gladdening us with smiling pictures 

 of floral beauty. 



SOME PLACES TO PUT BULBS 



The following hints may be useful to beginners. Some- 

 times there occurs in a garden a low bank or bed of hardy 

 Ferns. The spaces between these offer excellent places for 

 bulbs, such as the smaller Scillas, Chionodoxas, and Pusch- 

 kinias. This is well worth noting in preparing a Fern garden 

 a kind of garden that seems to have fallen into disuse, but 

 is capable of being made extremely beautiful, though not by 

 planting the Ferns among heaped-up stumps, as was formerly 

 so often done. When the little bulbs are blooming the Ferns 

 are not yet thinking about unfolding their fronds, but after 

 the bloom is over and the foliage has grown full and tall, as it 

 begins to turn colour after completing its life-work, the Fern 

 fronds are unfurling and spreading over the ground. To 

 avoid the monotony that might be felt if the space showed 

 nothing but flowering bulbs and brown tufts of undeveloped 

 Fern, it would be well to introduce just a few early-flowering 

 plants such as Dentaria, Woodruff, Virginian Cowslip, and 

 the pretty feathery Myrrhis odorata. Among the bulbs, first 

 there are the splendid blues of the Chionodoxas and early 

 Scillas, then there is a range of colourings that must be 

 kept apart from these, and will do well amongst themselves 

 or near neighbours. These will comprise the old garden 

 Dog's Tooth Violet and its varieties, and an old cottage garden 



G 



