Hardy Bulbs for Fall Planting— By w. N. Craig 



Massa- 

 chusetts 



HOW TO MAKE A BARE CITY YARD BLAZE WITH LIFE AND COLOR IN THE DREARY DAYS 

 OF MARCH AND APRIL BEFORE THE TREES LEAF OUT AND THE WILD FLOWERS COME— THE 

 CHEAPEST WAY TO MAKE A SPRING GARDEN— SIMPLE, EXPLICIT DIRECTIONS FOR BEGINNERS 



With photographs and suggestions by Luke F. Doogue and others 



PHE Dutch bulbs are generally ready to 

 -*- be distributed by the dealers about Sep- 

 tember 15th, and the early purchaser gets the 

 best selections from the season's stock. You 

 can plant bulbs any time from the beginning 

 of October to the middle of November. In 

 Maine, the earliest date is best; in Massa- 

 chusetts and Connecticut, from October 10th 

 to 15th is sufficiently early, and further South, 

 the best time is correspondingly later. 



144. The grape hyacinth, an old-time favorite. Small 

 blue flowers in grape-liKe clusters. (Muscari botiyoides) 



As soon as the bulbs are received, remove 

 them from the paper bags and spread them 

 on shelves or in boxes, in a cool, dry room, 

 until planting time. Don't put them in a 

 damp cellar or keep them in a warm living 

 room. Do not delay planting any longer than 

 is necessary, for the bulbs lose much of their 

 vitality when kept in boxes or bags. 



The first work in preparing a bed for bulbs 

 is to spade the earth deeply. When turning 

 the earth, throw it up well into the centre of 

 the bed, at the same time mixing in with it a 

 good dressing of well-rotted manure which 

 has been previously spread on the surface of 

 the bed. This manure must be old, not 

 fresh. Do the turning with a fork, rather 

 than a spade, as the fork breaks up the soil 

 much better. Plunge your fork or spade 

 right down to the full depth and turn up the 

 earth from the very bottom. After spading, 

 rake down the earth from the centre to make 

 the bed level. Don't leave any appreciable 

 roundness, as that means irregular flowering, 

 because of the different degrees of dryness. 



In a formal flower bed it is essential that 

 every bulb be placed exactly where it belongs. 

 All distances must be accurately measured. 



It is easy to make a little contrivance to facili- 

 tate this work. Take a piece of wood, about 

 three feet in length and two inches in width, 

 and drive nails into it at its narrow edge, 

 placing them at six inches, or whatever dis- 

 tance you wish to plant your bulbs. Do not 

 drive the nails home, merely fix them firmly, 

 as they are to be used to score outlines over 

 the surface of the bed. Attach a handle, and 

 you have a "marker," which you can draw 

 across the bed in both directions. Place the 

 bulbs at the intersections of the lines. 



First, place the bulbs that are to go in the 

 centre of the bed, and, when one bulb has 

 been handled, close that package before open- 

 ing another. Nothing is more annoying in 

 the springtime than to see a single spot of 

 scarlet or yellow marring an otherwise per- 

 fect band of white. 



If you want to make sure that all the bulbs 

 are set at exactly the same depth, use a dibble. 

 You can make one from a broken spade handle 

 by cutting it off five inches from the bottom of 

 the handle and sharpening the point. Or, cut 

 a piece of any convenient stick of about an inch 

 and a quarter diameter, and drive a nail into 

 it at five inches from the end, which will 

 mark the depth to which it is to be plunged. 

 (In the spring, you can set out young lettuce 

 or other plants much faster with a dibble 

 than with a trowel). The only objection to 

 it is that it sometimes compresses the soil too 

 much, and it leaves a hollow space under- 

 neath a bulb, which ought to be filled with 

 coarse sand before the bulb is set. Close 

 contact with the soil is essential. The sand 



provides drainage. Standing water at the 

 base of a bulb makes the roots decay. 



Speaking broadly, all the Dutch bulbs, 



146. Snowdrops often flower in January or February. 



Get the giant type (Galanthus Eliyesii) 



145. The wrong way to plant crocuses in the lawn. They should be scattered, not put in iines. They 

 will live several years in the grass if the foliage is not mown until it turns yellow, which is a sign that 

 the bulbs are ripening. If the front lawn must be mown in early May the bulbs will be injured 



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