260 The American Flower Garden 



a patch of meadow will be covered with the thick mat of its white- 

 ribbed green leaves and myriads of green-ribbed white stars. 

 While we may scarcely hope to have such sheets of the lovely, misty, 

 lavender-blue wood hyacinths (Scilla festalis or nutans) as Nature 

 spreads in wild places throughout Europe, the bulbs are cheap 

 enough to be tested in everybody's moist open woods and meadows. 

 More intense effects of blue, lavender, and purple may be had 

 from colonies of grape hyacinths, squills, chionodoxa, quamash, 

 and crocuses. The grape hyacinth, known as "Heavenly Blue," 

 makes patches of charming colour on a shady bank near a stream. 



In October, when bulbs come from the dealer and they 

 deteriorate if left long out of the ground stand in the centre of 

 the bit of land where you would naturalise them, toss them from 

 the bag in all directions, some near, some far, and plant them 

 where they fall. Regularity, rows, completely spoil the effect. 

 The smallest bulbs may lie only an inch or two inches apart. 

 A strong tin apple corer will cut out holes to drop them in, or a 

 dibber, made from an old spade handle whittled to a point, is 

 often used. This, however, packs the surrounding earth hard, 

 and each hole should be filled with good soil. A spud is convenient 

 for the smallest bulbs only. For large ones a trowel is necessary 

 unless one be the happy possessor of an English bulb-planting tool. 

 Some gardeners turn back a bit of sod on the corner of their spade, 

 drop the bulb in the opening and replace the sod, leaving no trace of 

 their operations behind them until the flowers push their way 

 through in spring. 



How bare would the rock garden be without the cheerful 

 spring bulbs! Whoever has one will fill its gray crevices with 

 their brightness and secure a long succession of bloom by placing 

 some in sheltered sunny places, under the lee of a sombre stone 



