346 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



July, 1909 



Japanese irises naturalized along a brook that dries in summer at the gardens of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society. (They are not strictly bulbous, but rhizomatous.) Plant them after blooming 



omit the double and variegated sorts, con- 

 tenting himself with a few varieties of simple 

 colors. And if, perchance, anything of 

 the sort exists, please inform me so that we 

 may send an artist in color photography. 



So far I have spoken only of wild garden- 

 ing, which implies a large scale of operations 

 and considerable wealth. But all the other 

 ideas here advanced can be applied in almost 

 any yard by people of moderate means. 



SHRUBBERY EFFECTS WITH BULBS 



It is even possible to adapt the wild 

 gardening idea to any yard that is large 

 enough for a border of shrubbery. For 

 instance, grow among your bushes narcissi 

 and all the March blooming bulbs named 

 above. Have only one kind of daffodil 

 between any two shrubs. Plant large clumps. 



Then you will enjoy a flower show in 

 your shrubbery border before the bushes 

 put forth their leaves. That is a time of 

 year when the heart craves flowers, and this 

 is one of Nature's combinations — shrubs 

 and bulbs. Neither interferes with the 

 other. Both are permanent. 



RHODODENDRON AND LILY EFFECTS 



Another English idea about bulbs that 

 can be applied in any yard large enough for 

 a bed of rhododendrons is to grow lilies 

 in the same bed. This combination en- 

 ables city dwellers to have gorgeous color 

 about their houses for three months after 

 the rhododendrons have ceased to bloom. 

 The first cost is heavy, but maintenance 

 costs little. The beds need to be dug only 

 once. Every year thereaf tera mulch should be 

 added, but there is practically no other care. 



FORMAL BEDS OF BULBS 



I must confess that formal bedding is 

 one of many subjects beyond my ken. 



I take little interest in methods which in- 

 volve forcing and throwing away bulbs or 

 digging them every spring, ■ curing them in 

 summer and replanting in the fall. So 

 I will merely mention what is done by Lord 

 Northcliffe at Sutton Place to make flower 

 beds interesting all summer without the 

 annual digging of bulbs in May and planting 

 of geraniums or cannas. 



He has several large beds of Darwin 

 tulips in which seeds of annual flowers are 

 sown. Among many that I saw in bloom 

 were clarkias, godetias, lupines, candytuft, 

 the annual anchusa, love-in-a-mist, catchfly, 

 Shirley poppies, larkspurs, Nemophila, cal- 

 liopsis, Statice sinuata and Phacelia cam- 

 pannlaria. 



To my depraved taste these flowers seemed 

 very pretty, but I dare say that park gar- 

 deners will pooh-pooh the idea. Never- 

 theless, anyone who will grow any four of 

 these combinations and take eight good 

 photographs showing the spring and summer 

 effect will have an article that the The 

 Garden Magazine will be glad to print. 



BORDER EFFECTS WITH BULBS 



Formal beds appeal strongly to the be- 

 ginner, but he soon finds that an irregular 

 border of hardy perennials gives him a 

 greater variety, a larger season and more 

 flowers for cutting. 



The only drawback to a border is that 

 most perennials bloom for only two weeks. 

 Nobody likes to have large portions of his 

 border devoid of bloom for a long time, and so 

 many good gardeners have gotten into the 

 habit of alternating perennials, e. g., a 

 clump of peonies, a clump of chrysanthe- 

 mums, then peonies again and so on. This 

 gives two crops of bloom from the same area. 



I saw a still better idea in England, 

 viz., bulbs and carpeting plants. The 



objection to alternating peonies and chry- 

 santhemums, or any other plants that make 

 a lusty growth at the same time, is that 

 they compete with each other. On the 

 other hand, bulbs and carpeting plants 

 supplement each other. The carpeting 

 plants protect the bulbs from alternate 

 freezing and thawing quite as well as 

 unsightly manure, and the bulbs look their 

 prettiest when they have a background of 

 foliage instead of dirt. 



Every hardy border ought to have per- 

 manent bulbs in it, especially Darwin 

 tulips and daffodils, and when these die 

 down there should be something to cover 

 the ground. So this year I am trying all 

 the pinks I can get hold of and all the stone 

 crops or sedums, which the English use 

 so much for this purpose. And I hope 

 some of my readers will get seeds now of 

 rock cress and other perennials, or plant 

 this fall on permanent bulb beds any 

 thrifts or mossy little plants that are avail- 

 able and send me pictures next spring. 



BULB COLLECTORS' GARDENS 



I hope we shall see the collecting spirit 

 develop wonderfully in America during 

 the next ten years, for there is a heap of 

 fun in it and it will do a lot of good. A 

 man who grows fifty varieties of daffodils 

 in a separate garden has something h'rs 

 friends and neighbors are bound to talk 

 about. 



A separate garden containing fifty varie- 

 ties of irises is very pretty and a life-long 

 delight, but fifty kinds of lilies would not 

 make a beautiful garden. 



If peonies are bulbs, then fifty varieties 

 of peonies make a lovely bulb garden. 



But the oldest and most famous garden 

 of this kind is the tulip fancier's collection, 

 which is still a beautiful institution in Eng- 

 land. We have nothing like it. The beds 

 usually have iron railings around them 

 which support canvas, for tulips are easily 

 spattered by a rain. The fancier's tulips 

 are the rectified or variegated tulips, of 

 which we know comparatively little. Any- 

 one who wishes to learn about this delightful 

 hobby should send for a little pamphlet 

 called "The English Tulip and Its History," 

 by Rev. F. Horner and others. It costs 

 about fifty cents to import. 



It is unlikely that the English tulip 

 fancier's point of view will' ever become 

 popular here, but American collections of 

 Darwin tulips are now becoming rather 

 common. These and the cottage tulips 

 seem best adapted to American social and 

 labor conditions, because Americans de- 

 mand long-stemmed flowers for cutting, 

 and do not like the bother and expense of 

 digging and replanting bulbs every year. 

 There are over two hundred varieties of 

 Darwins to choose from. , 



TALL CLUMPS ON THE LAWN 



Our common plan of scattering specimen 

 plants all over a lawn is hopelessly bad, 

 and the right thing is to make irregular 

 borders along the sides and at the back of 

 a lot. However, two or three beds of 



