96 GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 



in the earth to let the superfluous heat escape. If it runs 

 below, more manure must be added. Hotbeds are often 

 expensively built and elaborately heated ; but a plain frame 

 costing nothing but the labor, provided one has stock and 

 some pieces of glass, often works wonders. 



Whether one is specializing in vegetables or flowers, a 

 gardener will always do well to save a little space for bulbs. 

 Bulbs will glorify any sort of garden. They allow themselves 

 to be tucked so conveniently anywhere and everywhere, 

 into the corners of a kitchen garden, dotting a lawn, or along 

 the curbstone of a little front yard. City people will walk a 

 mile and more to see the first purple and yellow crocuses 

 springing up on a March day from beneath the patches of 

 snow. To say that raising bulbs is easy sounds overconfi- 

 dent, but as a matter of fact bulbs only insist upon having 

 rich loam, good drainage, and a little judicious care. Failure 

 to make them succeed may pretty surely be traced to the 

 neglect of one of these conditions. 



Late September is the time for setting out winter bulbs. 

 It is wise to line the holes with a little sand, to prevent the 

 earth from getting soggy and thus rotting the bulbs. In 

 order to keep them snug and warm during the winter, pile 

 on mattings of straw, or boughs, or leaves. Then in the 

 spring remove the wrappings, but not too suddenly. Bulbs 

 may be left in the ground throughout the year to flower each 

 spring during successive seasons, provided the space is not 

 required by other plants. If the room should be needed, 

 however, store them and later set them out again. When 

 once established, they multiply at a great rate, growing in spite 

 of all sorts of drawbacks, so that your stock is bound to 

 increase. No plants yield more lovely blossoms for the house. 

 For this purpose they may be grown in almost anything that 

 allows good drainage. 



