Planting Bulbs for Spring Bloom-By Elizabeth l. st 



rang, 



Landscape Arch. 

 Massachusetts 



IN PROPORTION TO COST AND SUBSEQUENT CARE, BULBS OFFER A MAXIMUM OF ATTRACTION 

 BOTH TO THE NOVICE IN GARDEN AFFAIRS AND TO THE ENTHUSIAST OF MANY SEASONS 



BULBS have only to be 

 planted at the proper 

 depth and at the pro- 

 per time, in soil of 

 average quality, given a slight 

 protection during the winter, 

 raked and cultivated slightly 

 in the spring, and cut back 

 after the tops have ripened. 

 At this present time we will 

 consider only those that can 

 be planted now. 



As a general rule the top of 

 the bulb is planted at a depth 

 of three times its thickness be- 

 low the surface of the ground. 

 The proper time is as early in 

 the fall as they arrive, though 

 they may be put in as long as 

 the ground is free from frost. In return 

 they repay us with a blaze of colorful bloom, 

 multiply rapidly, and many of them may 

 without detriment be left undisturbed in 

 the ground for years. 



There are several ways of utilizing bulbs. 

 They may be: (i) naturalized; (2) used as 

 bedding plants to be taken up after bloom- 

 ing and replaced with annuals; and (3) as 

 a part of the planting scheme of the border 

 or formal garden. 



I. BULBS FOR NATURALIZING 



By naturalizing, we mean planting in 

 colonies in the grass, under trees, or at the 

 edge of shrubbery in the open or landscape 

 portions of the place. To make this 

 method effective they must be used by the 

 hundreds and thousands and not by the 

 dozen. This does not mean that only the 

 rich can afford this kind of planting. With 

 some kinds of bulbs as cheap as eight dol- 

 lars a thousand and two hundred and fifty 



Tulips or hyacinths for formal bedding are effectively used in solid masses of one 

 and preferably in large park-like areas 



sold at the thousand rate, a little money will 

 go a long way. 



The narcissus and daffodils lend them- 

 selves to naturalization the most kindly. 

 They should be planted in groups of ten or 

 a dozen, from six to eight inches apart, the 

 groups in their entirety intermingling and 

 forming long irregular fines or drifts, each 

 one overlapping the succeeding one. The 

 entire effect will be ruined if there is any 

 appearance of having placed the bulbs in 

 rows with regular stiff spacing. Before 

 planting any of them it is best to put them 

 all exactly where they are to go. This is 

 easily done by throwing out whole hand- 

 fuls or armfuls and planting the bulbs just 

 where they fall. A crowbar is a quick and 

 effective instrument for breaking up the 

 ground, but care must be taken that there 

 is soil (or preferably sand) in the bottom of 

 the hole thus made, and that the bulb is 

 not "hung" in an air space. 



Varieties of narcissus for naturalizing 

 are — of the large trumpet, Horsfieldii, Em- 

 peror, and Spurius, and for the most inex- 

 pensive, Trumpet major, and Princeps 

 maximus. Of the short cupped varieties, 

 the white Narcissus poeticus, yellow and 

 orange Barri conspicuus, and Stella (yellow 

 and white) are very cheap. 



After the narcissi, the tulips are next in 

 effectiveness for naturalizing. There stand 

 out for this purpose several distinct tulip 



color 



species. The earliest of all, 

 flowering in late March or 

 early April, is Tulipa Kauf- 

 manniana, creamy white 

 tinged red. The pure yellow 

 Tulipa sylvestris — the wild 

 sweet-scented English tulip — 

 is especially fine when once 

 established. Viridiflora, pale 

 green edged creamy yellow, 

 combined with Carinata rubra, 

 dark crimson with a stripe of 

 apple green, is particularly 

 effective against evergreens. 



Because of their short stems 

 the early tulips as a class are 

 better planted in beds. The 

 taller late-flowering Cottage 

 and Darwin varieties, how- 

 ever, show up effectively against a back- 

 ground of flowering shrubs. Emerald 

 Gem, soft orange with a flush of old rose 

 — Parisian Yellow, its large pointed flower 

 edged with deeper yellow — light yellow 

 Retroflexa, with curving lily-like petals 

 — Gesneriana rosea, an oval flower of rosy 

 carmine — Elegans alba, with creamy white 

 reflexed petals — and Picotee, its recurving 

 petals delicately edged pink, are all of 

 sufficient individuality to be used in quan- 

 tities, each kind alone. A pleasing grada- 

 tion of color for named varieties of late 

 tulips would consist of crimson red, through 

 creamy white to soft and then a deeper 

 yellow and fawn to pink, deep rose, violet 

 and dark maroon. 



The little early bulbs like crocus, scilla, 

 chionodoxa, grape hyacinth, and snow- 

 drop offer less "show for the money" 

 than the bulbs enumerated, so that when 

 he first beholds them, the average citizen is 

 apt to feel that he has been cheated. They 



Snowdrops in natural effect used near an entrance way 

 in the grass 



Hyacinths are useful massed in beds near buildings and 

 are valued especially for their fragrance 



73 



Narcissus in variety may be used for bedding to be 

 supplanted by other plants later on 



