296 BULBS AND TUBEROUS-ROOTED PLANTS. 



arrives. The offsets may be planted in the vegetable 

 garden, or in any convenient place where they can receive 

 good cultivation, and most of them will bloom the 

 second year. 



Tulips From Seed. Tulips can be successfully 

 grown in many parts of our country, from seed, but not 

 profitably, because of the length of time required to 

 grow them large enough to flower, which is from five to 

 seven years. It is, however, a fascinating work. The 

 seed should be saved from the best flowers, and sown in 

 light soil in a frame, where it can be protected against 

 too hard freezing, and from being washed out by storms ; 

 this should be done as soon as the seed is thoroughly 

 ripe. The first year, bulbs about the size of peas will be 

 produced ; these must be grown on in the same manner 

 as flowering bulbs, taking them up when ripe, and re- 

 planting in autumn. When their time for flowering 

 arrives the grower's curiosity will be intense, and not 

 without reason ; his long years of patient industry are to 

 be rewarded ; how well or how poorly he is anxious to 

 know. Fortunate will he be if his Tulips are up to the 

 average, as not one in a hundred seedlings is considered 

 worthy of propagation. One thing is certain, all of 

 them will be sure to please him. Then he must wait 

 another series of years, from one to five, to see if his 

 Tulips break into new and desirable markings. Whether 

 anything remarkable has been produced or not, the 

 excitement attending the effort will be enjoyable. 



Tulips in Pots. There are no more pleasing 

 bulbs for the window garden than the Single Early 

 Tulips, when well grown, as they can be with as little 

 trouble as in the growing of any other class of bulbs. 

 Put three in a five inch pot filled with ordinary garden 

 soil ; let the top of the bulb be just even with the sur- 

 face of the soil ; water thoroughly, and plunge the pot 

 in a cold frame, or in a convenient place in the garden ; 



