20S 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



I September 13, 1851. 



BULBS. 

 • Catalogues of Dutch and other flower -roots now making 

 their appearance remind us that a few hints on the culti- 

 vation and the choice of bulbs may be useful to those who 

 have had but little success in their management, or who 

 wish to enjoy sweet and beautiful flowers in winter. I shall 

 divide the subject into three parts — 1st, Bulbs for forcing. 

 2nd, For flower-garden decoration. 3rd, Greenhouse and 

 stove bulbous plants. 



1st, bulbs for forcing. 



Of those none are more beautiful than the far-famed 

 Guernsey Lily, and the not less beautiful Belladonna Lily 

 (Amaryllis belladonna). The Guernsey Lily has a flower 

 of the most brilliant scarlet imaginable, looking in the sun's 

 rays as if dusted with gold, beautiful in the extreme, and 

 appearing at a time when flowers are scarce — October and 

 November. The Belladonna Lily has a charming whitish 

 flower flushed with rosy purple. They should be potted at 

 latest by the middle of September, before the scapes are 

 too far advanced, or they are liable to be injured in travel- 

 ling, and will not bloom finely. Three to five may be 

 planted in a six-inch pot, providing efficient drainage, and 

 employing a compost of good, sound, and rather strong 

 loam, with a little sand intermixed. I usually insert them 

 to the neck in the soil, and after watering them place in a 

 cold frame on coal ashes until the first week in October, 

 admitting air day and night, and protecting them only from 

 heavy rains. When brought on in a warm house, and at 

 a distance from the glass, they bloom poorly, and are not 

 capable of supporting the beautiful flowers on account of 

 the long flower-stem. To bloom well they should be kept 

 near the glass, and have abundance of air, but no more heat 

 than is necessary to exclude frost. A fair amount of air, 

 but not drying currents, is essential to success, and not less 

 so is a light situation. They do moderately well in sitting- I 

 room windows, and are beautiful objects for autumn decora- 

 tion generally. Inserted in moss or cocoa-nut fibre refuse 

 they bloom finely, providing it be kept moist ; but the bulbs 

 are of no use afterwards, nor are those potted after the 

 flower-scape appears. To grow them and bloom them are 

 two different things, of the latter of which I shall have occa- 

 sion to speak hereafter. 



Presuming them to have been potted early in September, 

 I give enough water to keep the soil thoroughly moist, and 

 place them in a cold frame, where they will require to be near 

 the glass, and have a free circulation of air. By the last week 

 in September the scapes will be far advanced for flowering, 

 when they may be removed to a shelf in the greenhouse; 

 and duly supplied with water, they bloom finely in October 

 and November. Copious supplies of water are necessary 

 to prolong the blooming. Those who have not grown these 

 bulbs have a treat in store. 



Hyacinths. — Domestic flowers in every sense, thriving 

 in the smokiest and busiest thoroughfares of towns nearly 

 as well as they do in the best-constructed horticultural 

 buildings, they are unsurpassed for their beautiful colours, 

 form, and fragrance, and on this account they are deserving 

 of every care, and ought to find a home in every household. 



The first essential to their successful cultivation is the 

 selection of bulbs, which should be clean, healthy-looking, 

 and heavy and firm. It is desirable to choose those bulbs 

 that have the scales covered with a thin tissue-like coat, 

 passing over those with the scales perished for some distance 

 from the crown, and having a cankery appearance. Round 

 medium-sized bulbs are the best, and if they have the apex 

 closely filled up with the scales, and the base of the bulb, 

 from which roots are emitted, free from mouldiness, flat, but 

 not much sunk, with a firmness to the touch and heavy 

 for their size, these are the sort of bulbs. Some kinds, 

 however, produce large roots, but even of such those 

 bulbs having a firmness and heaviness, which the large 

 open-scaled roots do not possess, are to be selected in pre- 

 ference. .Large, loose, light bulbs seldom give close sym- 

 metrical flower-spikes, but have more foliage, and taller 

 open spikes of bloom. Many kinds have smaUish-sized roots, 

 and these almost invariably afford the best spikes of bloom. 

 It is also desirable to procure bulbs early, quite as much to 

 secure them good as to have them potted in due time for 

 an early bloom ; and another grand point in ordering them 



early is to obtain roots that have not been exposed, per- 

 haps for weeks, to the influences of the atmosphere in the 

 seedsman's shop or window. The exposure of the bulbs to 

 light and atmospheric changes exerts an injurious influence 

 upon them. After they are purchased it is desirable to 

 keep them, if they are to be retarded, in the thin paper in. 

 which they are wrapped and in the bags, packed in chaff in 

 a cool, not light, and dry situation. A warm place renders 

 the roots liable to premature growth of top, and a moist 

 one causes the emission of roots. 



The next question is the choice of sorts; of these the 

 single varieties give the largest spikes, and, unlike the 

 double, invariably do well in water. Some consider the 

 single varieties the most beautiful ; but they might as well 

 say a Dog Rose is superior to the best of the Hybrid Per- 

 petual Roses. The single are the most numerous, which is 

 only what might be expected; for double sorts are more 

 difficult to obtain than single. I shall only give a selection 

 of the very best, Those marked thus * are the best for 

 early forcing and also for water ; t fine for exhibition. 



Double Blue. 



Laurens Koster, indigo; lone spike; bells large and closely arranged. 



Van Speyk, light blue, striped with deep blue ; fine spike ; very large bells. 



i; Paavlboot, blight pearly bine; fine bells and spike. 



Pasquin, pale blue; fine spike ; large bells. 



*Conite de St. Priest, light blue; fine bells; large spike. 



Bloksberg, fine marbled blue ; large bells, and charming spike. A good old 

 variety, not yet beaten. 



Garrick, intense deep blue; excellent spike; with large bells closely 

 arranged. 



Rudolphus, sky blue ; good truss ; bells fine, but rather thin. 



Prince Frederick, porcelain blue, or lilac, shaded ; large bells ; but mode- 

 rate spike. 



Sir Colin Campbell, light shaded blue; immense bells; fine spike. 



General Antick, lighi blue, a colour not much wanted; but amply com- 

 pensated for by the fine spike and good-sized bells. 



Bouquet Constant, porcelain blue ; nice bells, closely set on a very good 

 spike. 



Othello, very dark, with a small spike, but large bells. 



Double Red. 

 -+Dukc of Wellington, pale rose ; large bells, finely set on a good spike. 

 Tjenny Lind, deep rose; nice bells; good spike. 

 -t-Milton, fine deep red; large bells, and good spike. 

 Czar Nicholas, rose; good spike ; fine bells. 

 •Waterloo, pink at first, changing to deep red ; nice spike and fine hells. 

 ■tNoble par Merite, rose, striped carmine ; large spikes and immense bells. 

 Groot Voorst, pale rose ; tine handsome bells ; moderate spike. An old 

 variety, not yet eclipsed. 

 *+Princess Royal, good spike; fine bells of the loveliest rose, striped with 



deep pink. 

 fKoh-i-noor, fine salmon colour ; and fine bells and spike, just what a 



Hyacinth ought to be in form. 

 ^Bouquet Royale, deep ro^e, with a pink eye; good bells, and fine spike. 

 Regina Victoria, rosy pink ; fine spike, and large. 

 rSosannah Maria, remarkably fine spike, well set with charming salmon 

 rose bells. 



Double "White. 

 *-i-La Tour d'Auvergne, very fine pure white ; large spike ; nice bell?. 

 Ne Plus TJltr^, large bells and spike; but not so compact as desirable, 

 nor equal to many others. 

 -tPrince of Waterloo, exquisite ; large bells and spike. 

 Sir Bulwer Lytton, a bad white with a purple eye ; large spikes, and such 

 monstrous bells — novel, certainly, but not'a move in the right direc- 

 tion. 

 Anna Maria, another bad white, being but a blnsh wi'.h a pink eye ; with 



a moderate spike. 

 Sceptre d'Or, good pure white ; but only moderate spike and bells. 

 La Veslale, beautiful white, with a goodly spike; but bells below par. 

 Don Gratuit, good white; large bells, and nice spike. 

 +Triumph Blandina, blush, improved by a dark or deep pink eye; with 

 nice bells and a good spike. 

 La Deesse, white; moderate bells ; fine spike. 



The raiser of good double whites or good double Hyacinths 

 of any colour would make a fortune, and I hope ere long to 

 report an advance in the double varieties similar to what 

 has taken place in the single kinds. 



SINGLE HYACINTHS. 

 What a host ! but not one too many, only let them be as 

 good as General Havelock (black), Lord Palmerston (blue), 

 or Robert Fortune (mauve); but no more of your lanky 

 Pienemans. 



Single Red. — All are fine for exhibition. 

 Josephine, brilliant vermilion, the best red to be found in Hyacinths ; 



nice spike ; fine bells. 

 Cavaignac, salmon, with deep rose stripes; fine bells, and large spike. 

 Howard, orange crimson. 

 Circe, pink, striped with carmine ; bells of good substance, j nst what is 



wanted in double Hyacinths. 

 Madame Hodgson, pale pink ; nice bells ; and such a fine spike, the form 



being so beautiful. 

 Pelissier, scarlet ; beautiful closely-arranged bells on an immense spike. 



Everybody will grow this when the price is lowered. 



