BULBS FOR SPRING PLANTING 



WE are all accustomed to think of autumn as 

 the time for planting bulbs, and, indeed, most 

 of our best and most familiar bulbs have to be planted 

 in the autumn. Yet there are a good many bulbs 

 not perfectly hardy in our winters which lucidly do 

 not, like DaflPodUs and Crocuses, begin their growth 

 before the spring, and which can, therefore, be taken 

 up and stored during the winter, and only planted 

 when all fear of severe frost is over. Some of these, 

 like the Gladioli, are quite familiar to us; but others 

 are not often seen in our gardens and deserve to be 

 grown more than they are. They are, as a rule, sim- 

 loving plants, and should be planted in warm and 

 sheltered places, with good drainage and Kght, rich 

 soil. Gardeners often make the mistake of supposing 

 that bulbs which grow in the poorest of soil in their 

 native countries will necessarily need no more nourish- 

 ment in England. It is natural to suppose this, but 

 often wrong. For as human beings need more food 

 in cold countries than in hot ones, so it is apt to be 

 with plants. It has been discovered, for instance, 

 that Iris tingitana, which thrives in Africa almost 

 in the desert, will not usually flower in England with- 

 out a good dose of manure under it. It is impossible 

 to reproduce in England all the conditions to which 



264 



