302 



Garden and Forest. 



[AlTGUST 22, 1 8 



Spring-Flowering Bulbs. 



THIS is the season of the year when the catalogues of 

 the Dutch bulb-growers should be carefully studied, 

 and when people should determine what bulbs they will 

 plant for the decoration of their gardens in spring and 

 where and in what manner they shall be planted. The 

 bulbs need not be placed in the ground until October or 

 even until November, but it is well, in all that relates to the 

 garden, to take time by the forelock, and not to put off the 

 planning of planting operations until the planting time ac- 

 tually comes. And if the bulbs are imported direct from 

 one of the great Dutch bulb-farms, as is the most satisfac- 

 tory and economical method if many plants are needed, 

 six weeks at least will pass after the order is sent before 

 the bulbs arrive, so that if it is sent late in the present 

 month or early in September, the plants will not arrive too 

 early for autumn planting. 



The cultivation of hardy spring-flowering bulbs is one of 

 the most delightful, as it is one of the most satisfactory of 

 all forms of gardening. Many of the plants classed under 

 this head yield flowers which no inhabitant of the tropics can 

 excel in delicate charm or in gorgeous splendor. No plants 

 are more easily cultivated, and none give so much pleasure 

 for the small amount of money which they cost. Many of 

 them increase and multiply without care, beyond the first 

 planting, and, once established, go on flowering year after 

 year almost indefinitely. 



There is a charm in these early spring flowers, appearing 

 among the melting snows, the first indication that the long 

 winter has come to an end, which each year grows stronger 

 and stronger, and which no other feeling inspired by the 

 contemplation of Nature's workings ever quite resembles. 

 Men tire of the most splendid Orchids of the tropics, of 

 the masses of color which modern horticulture spreads over 

 the Chinese Azaleas, of all the garden show and gorgeous- 

 ness of these later days, but who has ever tired olf a Snow- 

 drop or a Daffodil in early spring ? 



There is a much larger variety of hardy spring-flower- 

 ing bulbous plants than are usually met with in American 

 gardens, which, by a proper selection, may be made gay 

 or interesting with them from March until July, or from the 

 time when the earliest Snowdrops and Crocuses appear, 

 until the blooming of the so-called Spanish and English 

 Irises in mid-summer. Many new species and varieties of 

 the Crocus have been introduced into gardens of late years, 

 and the blooming period of the plants of this genus has, in 

 this way, been materially prolonged. Among Sfpiills there 

 ai-e many charming flowers blooming in succession during 

 six or seven weeks. The number of different Narcissus which 

 can now be grown is almost endless. The attention which 

 has been bestowed upon these plants of late years in England, 

 by botanists and by gardeners, is one of the most interest- 

 ing phases of modern horticulture. It has resulted in the 

 reintroduction of many species of Narcissus long lost to 

 gardens, and in the production of many new hybrids of 

 more than passing interest and value. The Tulip and the 

 Hyacinth are too well known to need mention here ; ex- 

 cept to call attention to the fact that many of the species of 

 Tulip, which have been described at different times in the 

 columns of this Journal, exceed in beauty as they certainly 

 do in interest, those of the more familiar garden races. 

 They should find place in every garden, with quantities 

 of Narcissus and Squills, Alliums and Snowdrops, Snow- 

 flakes and Crocuses, Frittilaries and Dogtooth Violets, 

 Ornithagalums and Lilies-of-the- Valley. There never was 

 a garden in which there were too many of these plants, or 

 in which some corner could not have been found which 

 might have been made more attractive by their presence. 



Persons who have only seen spring flowering bulbs in 

 formal garden beds can form but a fanit idea of the pleas- 

 ure which can be got from them when they are planted 

 in natural groups or masses along the borders of wood- 

 walks, in the fields among grass, or in the rough and un- 

 kept parts of the garden. Our illustration upon page 



306, representing a quantity of the Poet's Narcissus, and 

 of one of the late blooming tall Squills {S. campanidatd), 

 grown in this way near a wood-walk in a garden in 

 Massachusetts will serve, perhaps, to give a slight idea 

 of how such plants can be properly associated together, 

 and how their greatest charm and beauty can be brought 

 out. 



All bulbous plants, however, cannot be satisfactorily 

 used in this viray. A garden Tulip or a garden Hya- 

 cinth planted in the grass appears as much out of place 

 as a Dock in a trim parterre; but all the Narcissus look 

 better in the grass than in a border, especially the Poet's 

 Narcissus, and the Jonquil. Crocuses are more attrac- 

 tive when planted in this way than in formal beds or as 

 edgings", although they harmonize less perfectly with their 

 surroundings than Squills, all of which look their best when 

 allowed to run wild. Many bulbs last longer and increase 

 more rapidly when left to themselves in this way, than 

 when planted in borders, from which it is often necessary 

 to remove them. It is essential, however, that all these 

 plants should be allowed to thoroughly mature and ripen 

 their foliage. They cannot, therefore, be planted in grass, 

 which is cut early in the season, and even if this were not 

 the case, such plants springing from closely cut turf look 

 less at home and less natural than when they grow among 

 tall grasses or the wild plants which are found along the 

 borders of woods or on rocky banks. These bulbous 

 plants delight almost universally in deep, rich soil, and if 

 they are to be naturalized, and are expected to flower year 

 after year, and to increase, it should be provided for them 

 when the bulbs are first planted. If this is done, no further 

 care or attention need ever be paid to them; and every 

 year when they bloom, the fortunate possessor of a gar- 

 den in which such plants thrive, will rejoice with a new 

 and ever increasing joy. 



Mr. John Kenrick established in 1797 a commercial nur- 

 sery of ornamental trees in Newton, Massachusetts. Two 

 acres, a large piece of ground for such a purpose at that 

 time, he devoted to the cultivation of the Lombardy Pop- 

 lar, which was about the only ornamental tree for which 

 there was any demand in those da}'S. It is worthy of re- 

 mark that the Poplars which Mr. Kenrick and others 

 propagated and distributed by thousands and by tens of 

 thousands early in this century have now nearly all dis- 

 appeared. Here and there a decrepit and half dead Lom- 

 bardy Poplar may still be seen in the Eastern States, but 

 their beauty is a thing of the past, and each year reduces 

 their number. It is not old age alone which affects 

 them, for young trees, after growing during a few years 

 with vigor and rapidity, perish by piecemeal, branch after 

 branch falling away without any apparent cause; and it is 

 not the climate of America which is fatal to this tree, for it 

 is disappearing in Europe in the same manner. These 

 trees abounded in France, in Germany and in Italy half 

 a century ago; now they are comparatively rare in those 

 countries, and the specimens which remain are not more 

 healthy than those seen in the United States. It is not 

 improbable, therefore, that the Lombardy Poplar will dis- 

 appear entirely. All the individuals of this tree, which is 

 considered an abnormal form of the Black European 

 Poplar, have descended probably from one or from a com- 

 paratively few individuals whose peculiarities and weak- 

 nesses of constitution have thus been handed down from 

 individual to individual without change, and without the 

 infusion of new blood vi'hich plants derive from cross-fer- 

 tilization among individuals of the same species, or by the 

 hybridization of nearly allied species, and without which 

 no race can endure for any considerable period. Cases 

 are not unknown where plants propagated exclusively 

 by division, for the purpose of perpetuating some pecu- 

 liar characteristic not transmitable to their offspring in the 

 natural way, have entirely disappeared ; and this will 

 probably prove true, sooner or later, of many trees of 



