BULBOUS PLANTS 



ground than those of the latter. This practise is also 

 followed with tulips. 



October is naturally the time to plant hyacinth, 

 as well as many other bulbs. These bulbs like a light 

 soil and much sunlight. In seashore gardens, the 

 soil is not often heavy, but, if for special reasons this 

 should be the case, it can be lightened by mixing 

 considerable sand through it when the beds are pre- 

 pared. Expert gardeners, moreover, usually hold a 

 handful of sand about a bulb, no matter what kind it 

 is, at the time that it is set in the earth. Good drainage 

 is thus secured and the bulb is protected from contact 

 with manure. In exposed positions by the sea, bulbs 

 should be covered in early winter, after the ground 

 has frozen, with a few inches of coarse manure and 

 litter. 



The single hyacinths are now almost universally 

 thought more attractive than the double ones. Some- 

 times they are even seen planted through the grass 

 in a naturalistic way. There is, however, something 

 about the appearance of hyacinths that demands the 

 setting of a garden, or at least of a formal bed. There 

 is so little that is unconventional in their appearance, 

 their look is so formal, that it seems as if the way 

 should be cleared for their coming. 

 / Hyacinihus candicans might in truth be called 

 the giant of the family, since its spikes of bloom are 

 frequently three feet high and crowned with well- 

 formed, waxen-white flowers, suggesting inverted cro- 

 cuses. This tall hyacinth, however, has no opportunity 

 to look down upon its shorter relatives, for they have 



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