SEPTEMBER: SECOND WEEK 227 



well as garden space is limited. The culture is the easiest 

 imaginable: buy good bulbs, plant them properly, give them 

 a hght winter mulching, remove it in the spring — and 

 success is yours. The reason for this is that the buyer of a 

 bulb is getting what is practically a "finished product"; 

 all he has to do, so to speak, is to open the can and warm 

 the contents, and it is ready for use. With a seed or a 

 plant or even a shrub, however, he has got to do some real 

 gardening. And the reason lies in the fact that the indus- 

 trious Hollander or Frenchman or Jap who grew the bulb 

 has done the real work with it; the flower is contained in- 

 side, literally a perfect miniature already formed, needing 

 only the proper application of the sufl&cient degree of mois- 

 ture and heat and sunshine to swell it to its mature propor- 

 tions and to tint it to the most delicate or dazzUng of colors. 

 That is why, for example, you can grow a lily bulb in 

 pebbles and plain water. For the amateur, success with 

 the spring flowering bulbs is more certain than any other 

 class of flowers. As already stated, their culture is the 

 simplest; furthermore, they are practically free from insect 

 pests and diseases, more so than any other class, not even 

 excepting shrubs; finally they escape that greatest of all 

 garden plagues — the midsummer drought. When your 

 other choice flowers are drying up or necessitating the 

 daily use of the hose and the constant maintenance of a 

 dust mulch, your bulbs are lying dry and dormant, "resting 

 up" for the autumnal root growth and the spring flowering 

 period, at both of which seasons moisture is usually abun- 

 dant. Nor is their cost excessive: the most beautiful of the 

 narcissi for planting in mass or naturahzing can be purchased 

 for from half a cent to a cent and a half apiece. Nor, again, 

 is the fact that their cheery blossoms come at a season when 

 practically no other flowers are in bloom, to be overlooked. 



Plan Your Bulb Garden Before You Order 



Before making out your bulb order, even though you 

 take pains to select varieties that will give you a long season 



