Apbil 28, 1921 .,^ 



The Florists^ Review 



37 



M^^M^MS^^^M^^^^^SMMM 



mmiA 



GROWING DUTCH BULBS IN AMERICA 



^r«\1r/sv1r/'*^n/s^1^^4^1^rt»^1r/sv1^«v1rr•^1^/»r,y*^1r?sv1r?*^1r^^ 



T HAS always been cheap- 

 er to import them than to 

 grow them in this country 

 — that is a brief expres- 

 sion of the prevailing pre- 

 war opinion in regard to 

 Dutch bulbs and many 

 other products of the soil. 

 But, however well found- 

 ed that opinion may have 

 been in the past, "it is certain that in 

 the future the conditions will be dif- 

 ferent." So says a bulletin recently is- 

 sued by the United States Department 

 of Agriculture. And the florists' trade 

 realizes, indeed, that conditions already 

 are "different." 



The prewar preference for the im- 

 ported Dutch bulbs — not to speak now 

 of other articles of stock — was greatly 

 strengthened, also, by the general im- 

 pression that the bulbs could not be 

 successfully produced in this country, 

 but would deteriorate from 

 year to year in the Amer- 

 ican environment, so that a 

 renewal of the stock from 

 foreign sources would soon 

 be necessary. In conform- 

 ity with this discouraging 

 creed, the entire annual 

 crop of bulbs grown in the 

 United States has seldom 

 been worth more than. $25,- 

 000, though in normal times 

 the bulbs used per year in 

 this country have approxi- 

 mated $2,000,000 in value. 



"The fertilizer requirement of bulbs 

 is not sufficiently appreciated in this 

 country. These stocks require heavy 

 fertility to produce well and to main- 

 tain their size. We have sometimes 

 thought that the better success with 

 narcissus than with other bulbs is due 

 to the fact that this group requires less 

 fertility and is exceedingly impatient 

 of any soil loaded up with organic mat- 

 ter, even when well incorporated. This 

 does not mean that the narcissus re- 

 quires a lean soil, but that a heavily 

 fertilized soil must not be in contact 

 with the bulb. The practice of rotation 

 by the bulb grower on the other side of 

 the Atlantic is in this particular instruc- 

 tive. The formula of the rotation may 

 be stated as follows: 



Rotation of Crops. 



"A heavy application of cow manure 

 in winter is followed by a crop of pota- 



Beasons for Failure. 



PROVED PRACTICAL 



Yet experience has 

 proved, as attested by the 

 government bulletin al- 

 ready quoted, that "narcis- 

 sus bulbs of perfect quality 

 can be grown in this coun- 

 try over a wide latitude, 

 and tulips, though more ex- 

 acting in their require- 

 ments, can also be produced 

 successfully. Those best in- 

 formed are just as sanguine 

 about the production of 

 hyacinth bulbs, though decisive tests on 

 these have not yet been made." 



The principal reasons, apparently, for 

 the frequent failures in the propaga- 

 tion of Dutch bulbs in tkis- country are, 

 first, careless and negleollul culture, es- 

 pecially with reference to.the use of fer- 

 tilizers, and, second, the aelection of an 

 unsuitable location. . 



In regard to general neglect in cul- 

 ture, the aforementioned- bulletin has 

 these suggestions: "W« may gain a 

 valuable lesson as to the requirements 

 and suitability of these bulbs from the 

 long private experiences of those who 

 have flowered them either in pots or in 

 borders in different regions and then 

 tried to carry on their propagation. It 

 is the common experience that these 

 stocks gradually decrease in size in the 

 hands of the small grower. This is not 

 always a proof of lack of adaptability, 

 because it is seldom that the stocks are 

 properly handled. They become over- 

 grown with weeds, are left undug too 

 long, or are improperly fertilized. 



"The success with the three main groups of 

 these bulbs on the northern Pacific coast; the 

 large production of a long list of narcissus varie- 

 ties insouthernininoisandVirginia; the culture 

 of Darwin and other tulips'in Michigan, northern 

 New^ York, Ontario and Virginia, and the admir- 

 able hyacinth bulbs often produced in private 

 gardens throughout the region south of New 

 York, under conditions of comparative neglect, 

 would seem to prove sufficiently that we have 

 an abundant territory adapted to growing these 

 stocks." 



are the best localities for the growing 

 of the staple farm crops, so experience 

 must answer the same question with 

 reference to this comparatively new 

 American crop, Dutch bulbs. 



Sometimes only a slight difference in 

 latitude or longitude may make a vital 

 difference in conditions. Thus, though 

 Dutch bulbs thrive well on the north 

 Pacific seaboard, they have proved to be 

 a disappointment in a certain district 

 of northern California, a district which 

 would scarcely be called interior or in- 

 land, being only forty miles from the 

 coast. There the hot, dry period arrives 

 too early to permit the full growth and 

 perfect maturity of the bulbs. 



"Suitable temperature, moisture and 

 soil conditions," says the government 

 bulletin, "obtain in both our Atlantic 

 and Pacific coast regions. In the in- 

 terior of the eastern United States, as 

 far west as Illinois and Michigan at 

 least, conditions are favor- 

 able enough for success. 

 The temperature is not so 

 favorable as in the cooler 

 coastal climate, but, in our 

 opinion, where friable, 

 well-drained soils occur 

 the conditions are gener- 

 ally as satisfactory for the 

 production of Dutch bulbs 

 as for the common staple 

 crops usually grown there. 



Seacoast Conditions. 



toes dug early, and these are followed 

 by hyacinths one year, tulips the second 

 year and then narcissi. When the lat- 

 ter are left in for two years they com- 

 monly receive a top-dressing of manure 

 the second year. The soil in which the 

 narcissus is planted in this rotation has 

 produced a crop of potatoes, one of hya- 

 cinths and one of tulips. The applica- 

 tion of a mulch of manure always works 

 well with the narcissus, because the 

 fertility is secured in the form of leach- 

 ings. The relative fertility require- 

 ments of the bulbs are well exemplified 

 in this rotation." 



Turning our attention now to the 

 other cause of failure, the selection of 

 an unsuitable location, we shall find, it 

 seems, that there are abundant oppor- 

 tunities for the choice of favorable 

 regions in this broad land. Dutch bulbs, 

 says the government bulletin, "succeed 

 under a great diversity of conditions. 

 Indeed, they seem to be as adaptable as 

 ordinary cultivated crops." But, just 

 as experience has demonstrated what 



"Thus far, the commer- 

 cial production of Dutch 

 bulbs has in this country 

 been confined mainly to the 

 Atlantic and Pacific sea- 

 boards, in the former north 

 of Norfolk and in the lat- 

 ter north of San Francisco. 

 The available data are 

 more or less meager in 

 either case, but good bulbs 

 have been produced in both 

 regions. 



"The western bulb area 

 appears to be rather nar- 

 row, being confined to a 

 strip of territory which receives suit- 

 able rainfall and is suflSciently affected 

 by seacoast conditions to prevent rapid 

 transition from winter to summer. The 

 eastern area is much more indefinite as 

 to width, as the heat and moisture con- 

 ditions are not so sharply defined. 



"In the interior, in the Ohio and 

 Mississippi valleys, small quantities of 

 tulip and narcissus bulbs have been 

 grown sufficiently long to show the pos- 

 sibility of the successful production of 

 many varieties. 



"Some of the hardier and more robust 

 of the narcissus varieties thrive well 

 and naturalize even in the gulf states, 

 but this region is best adapted to the 

 so-called South France stocks. The 

 growing of tulips and Dutch hyacinths 

 probably should not be attempted there. 

 "Contrary to what would be gener- 

 ally supposed, it is not too cold for 

 tulips and narcissi - to succeed as far 

 north as Sitka, Alaska. They thrive 

 well along the entire northern border 

 of the United States, wherever the mois- 



