Start Now to Grow Your Christmas Gifts-By Laura F. Mordaunt, 



THREE BULBS THAT YOU CAN HAVE IN BLOOM FOR THE HOLIDAYS EVEN IF YOU START 

 AS LATE AS NOVEMBER 15th. THEY CAN BE GROWN WITHOUT SOIL EVEN IN CITY FLATS 



Michigan 



IF YOU want to put personality into 

 your Christmas gifts with a minimum 

 of effort instead of buying store things that 

 have neither sentiment nor fitness, grow some 

 bulbs for half a dozen of your friends who 

 would be surprised and delighted to get them. 

 It is not too late to start now, for there are 

 three kinds that will be in bud or flower by 

 Christmas even if the bulbs are started as late 

 as November 15th. I have even started them 

 as late as December 1st. Of course, they 

 did not bloom by Christmas, but the fresh, 

 green growth was so lusty and attractive 

 that everybody seemed delighted. People 

 who have never grown a house plant will be 

 happy to care for them, for they look easy 

 to grow and sure to bloom before the holiday 

 feeling has gone. 



The easiest of all bulbs for house culture 

 and the one that blooms in the shortest time 

 is the Roman hyacinth. I have had it in 

 bloom in four weeks from the time I bought 

 the bulbs. It will flower in two or three 

 weeks after you have brought it into the 

 warmth and light and needs only a fortnight 

 previous to this for rooting in the cellar, 

 though three weeks is better. Roman 

 hyacinths can be had for Thanksgiving if 

 started October 15th. 



The Chinese sacred lily will bloom in six 

 weeks from the time you buy the bulbs and 

 the Paper -White narcissus in eight weeks. 



These three bulbs can be grown without 

 soil and therefore without any danger of 

 harming rugs or carpets. Moreover they 

 require little or no direct sunshine, will 

 tolerate the hot dry air of furnace-heated 

 houses and are not seriously affected by 

 unavoidable changes in temperature. 



Paper While Narcissus started November 1 5th in sand 

 and water, will bloom by Christmas 



These bulbs can be grown in pots of earth, 

 in bowls of sphagnum moss, cocoanut fibre, 

 or moist sand. All are good ways, but moist 

 sand is perhaps the neatest and most attrac- 

 tive, especially if the flowers are designed 

 for the dining-room table. 



Use only perfectly clean sand in planting 

 bulbs. You can easily prepare it by washing 

 thoroughly and baking it in a hot oven for 

 an hour, or buy it in packages ready to use 

 at stores where bird and gold fish supplies 

 are kept. I like best the prepared sand. 



Clear glass bowls with smooth edges are 

 in better taste and otherwise more satis- 

 factory than colored or ornate receptacles. 

 Ordinary finger bowls, holding three or four 

 bulbs are a convenient size for a small table, 

 but large bowls which will hold from six to 

 twelve bulbs are more effective and require 

 no more care than the smaller ones. 



For Roman hyacinths half-fill the bowls 

 with sand, and put the bulbs not more 

 than half an inch apart. They may even 

 touch one another. Then add sand or fine 

 gravel, taking care not to disturb the bulbs 

 until the bowls are filled to within half an 

 inch from the top. The other bulbs are 

 larger and therefore you should use deeper 

 bowls or less sand for them. 



After planting the bulbs water them thor- 

 oughly and set them in a cool, dark place, 

 (not a very cold place, if speedy results are 

 desired) until vigorous root-growth is made. 

 Three weeks is usually required to accom- 

 plish this but a longer time in the dark is 

 always an advantage. The secret of bulb 

 culture is to get a big root growth before the 

 tops begin to grow. 



Bulbs that are planted in sand or moss 

 must be watched closely, to prevent the 

 possibility of their becoming dry and a few 

 hours of neglect may result in small, defective 

 flowers or complete failure. Keep the sand 

 or moss constantly wet from time of planting 

 until the end of the blossoming season. 



I allow about three weeks from the time 

 of bringing the bulbs to a warm, light place, 

 until the time of full bloom. Sometimes less 

 time is required, if the bulbs are large, the 

 root growth extra good, the room free from 

 extremes of hot and cold. 



If your bulbs want to bloom before Christ- 

 mas or whenever you wish them, you can 

 hold them back by keeping them cool and 

 dark for a few days. To hasten growth, give 

 extra warmth and sunshine. 



The Paper White narcissus seldom dis- 

 appoints you at any stage, but a variety of 

 the same species known as Chinese sacred 

 lily is much more sensitive to changes in 

 temperature and not infrequently promising 

 buds fail to develop for no apparent reason. 

 Beginners often fail to bloom them the first 

 time, but usually feel repaid for their trouble 

 by the luxuriant foliage which these big 

 bulbs always give 



239 



A succession of flowers may be had from 

 Thanksgiving or even earlier, until spring, 

 either by planting Roman hyacinths and 

 narcissus bulbs at intervals of ten days apart 

 or by planting them all at the same time and 

 keeping them in a dark, cold cellar until 

 needed. Roman hyacinths do not bear 

 freezing but are not injured by a low temper- 

 ature. It is usually more convenient to 

 plant a quantity of bulbs at the same time. 

 Bulbs are supposed to lose some of their 

 vitality if they are kept for a long time 

 unplanted, but some Roman hyacinths that 

 we kept in a dry place in a paper bag from 

 early October until ten days before Christmas 

 were in full bloom by the middle of January. 



Cocoanut fibre is less attractive than sand 

 as a medium for growing bulbs but it has the 

 advantage of being light to handle and is for 

 this reason excellent to use in large, heavy 

 bowls. It also retains moisture well and 

 may be kept sweet by the use of charcoal. 



Sphagnum moss is also satisfactory, and 

 both materials may be made much more 

 attractive by covering the surface with living 

 moss or lichens from the woods. The 

 exquisite gray-green of lichens is particularly 

 beautiful with the deeper, richer green of 

 growing leaves and opening buds. 



A pleasing combination of Roman hy- 

 acinths and ferns may be made by planting 

 Roman hyacinths two or three inches apart 

 in a large bowl of sand, and when the hy- 

 acinths are just coming into bloom filling the 

 spaces with ferns such as florists sell in tiny 

 pots for fifteen cents. 





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Chinese sacred lily started November 15th in a bowl 

 of water will bloom by Christmas 



