60 THE NURSERY-MANUAL 



cised that the bulbs do not become too moist, else they will 

 rot. Hollowed bulbs should be well dried before being 

 planted. Both methods of preparing hyacinth bulbs are 

 shown in Figs. 46 and 47, the latter adapted from the 

 Gardener's Chronicle. The mutilated bulbs are stored 

 during summer, and are planted in fall or spring. The 

 wounded bulbs produce very little foliage, but 

 at the end of the first season the bulbels will 

 have formed. The bulbels are then separated 

 and planted by themselves in prepared beds. 

 Several years are required for the bulbels to ma- 

 ture into flowering bulbs. Some of the strongest 

 ones may produce flowering bulbs in three years, 

 FIG. 48. Bulb but some of them, especially those obtained from 

 the hollowed bulbs, will not mature short of six 

 years. This method of propagating hyacinths is confined 

 mostly to Holland. 



The scales of bulbs are often employed to multiply scarce 

 varieties. From ten to thirty of the thicker scales may be 

 removed from the outside of a large bulb without serious injury 

 to it. These scales are treated in the same way as single-eye 

 cuttings. They are usually handled in flats or propagating- 

 frames, and are pressed perpendicularly into a light and loose 

 soil half sharp sand and half leaf -mold for nearly or quite 

 their entire length, or they may be scattered in damp moss. 

 Keep the soil merely moist, and for hardy and half-hardy 

 species hold the temperature rather low from 45 to 60. 

 Slight bottom heat may sometimes be given to advantage. In 

 three to ten weeks a little bulbel, or sometimes two or more, 

 will appear at the base of the scale, as shown in Fig. 48. 



Late autumn or early winter is a proper time for planting 

 bulb scales. The pots or flats may be plunged outdoors in 

 summer if the planting was made in winter, or the scales may 

 be potted off or transferred to the open border as soon as root- 



