Crocus and Other Early Bulbs —By Mrs. Francis k 



ing, Im- 



plant SOME OF THE MORE REFINED KINDS OF THESE 

 THE SPRING GARDEN A SHOW OF COLOR HARMONIES 



LESSER BULBS" AND MAKE 

 - SUGGESTED COMBINATION 



LET me begin by presenting these 

 "ruminations," as he calls them, 

 J from the pen of the Rev. Joseph 

 Jacob of England, whose name is 

 known wherever two or three daffodils 

 or as many tulips are gathered together. 

 "Was there ever a time," writes he, 

 "when bulbs were not popular? Prob- 

 ably not. At all events, there is not 

 much doubt about it at the present time. 

 Every horticultural firm which considers 

 itself at all "up" in the world, considers one 

 of its annual necessities the issuing of a 

 bulb list. Contrariwise, the reception and 

 perusal of these lists are among the peren- 

 nial pleasures of every one who has a gar- 

 den. Bulbs are wonderfully accommodat- 

 ing things. I have a tortoise which we 

 call Timmie, and for the last three 

 months he has been fast asleep un- 

 der some nice dry leaves in the 

 cellar. Just now, with a little 

 careful packing, he could very 

 easily undertake a long jour- 

 ney. 



"Bulbous plants are the 

 'Timmies' of the vegetable 

 kingdom. When they have 

 retired into their shells ,th ey 

 can be sent about so readily 

 and so safely that if they 

 lived to about ten times 

 the age of Methuselah, I 

 should not be surprised to 

 find that, if it is really true 

 what botanists tell abouL 

 dispersion and propagation be- 

 ing the two things that plants 

 worry themselves most about, 

 then all well-brought-up plantlets 

 would be taught, just as we teach the 

 ' three R V to-day, how to take on a 

 bulbous state as an essential part of their 

 life cycle." 



With Mr. Jacob's whimsical wish I 

 heartily agree, more particularly as I re- 

 call the few choice aubrietias by post from 

 Ireland, the glories in delphinium from 

 England in the same manner, all of which 

 when opened were found to be exhausted 

 indeed by their journey. 



Now, before rushing toward — before 

 leaping to our main flower, the crocus, may 

 I pay a word of tribute to the tribe of 

 Muscari, the grape hyacinth. While these 

 small bits of perfection in flowers, in blue 

 flowers — yes, a true blue in some forms — 

 are wonderful in color they must, in my 

 experience, be packed closely together in 

 planting for any really good effect. While 

 several flowers come from each crocus bulb 

 set in earth, from Muscari azureum, the 

 small and early sky-blue, I usually have 

 but two and the tiny things seem not to 

 spread, to multiply as the crocus does. 



Of the other grape hyacinths, a delight- 



ful color picture is seen each May on either 

 side of my little brick walk. The late 

 Muscari Heavenly Blue clusters below the 

 pale yellow lisle-like threads of Tulipa 

 retroflexa, and below the grape hyacinth 

 (whose strong dark blue has a metallic 

 quality), quantities of fine myosotis plants 

 are blooming at the same moment. 



The earliest muscari are true crocus 

 companions — azureum in dense companies, 

 with Crocus Mont Blanc, always most 

 lovely — or with such a lavender as 

 Madame Mina a most unusual color com- 

 bination may be made. 



Since the spring of 191 2 I have felt that 

 I must take ur> my nen for the crocus, to 



Cloth of Gold, one of the besu known florists' cro- 

 cus, opens Its flowers in February in the North 



introduce it in a few of its newer and less 

 known varieties to those who have never 

 grown those at all. 



The desire to get "something for 

 nothing" is quite as noticeable among the 

 guild of amateur gardeners as among those 

 who find joy in bargain sales. And in the 

 crocus we have first of all a bargain. 

 Thousands for a few dollars, hundreds for 

 some cents. Next in cheapness to seeds 

 they are; and have a habit, when not 

 bothered by a nervous or too-transplant- 

 ing owner, of multiplying in a fashion 

 comforting to see. In the nine years in 

 which I have been growing the crocus on 

 our small piece of ground, I cannot now 

 remember having lost any except in cases 

 where the growth of overhanging or over- 

 hungry shrubbery has eaten up the little 

 things at their feet. 



99 



One of my first plantings before the bare 

 east wall of brick of a then new house was 

 of the Crocus Reine Blanche, a fine white 

 in groups now dense, now more open, with 

 hosts of Scilla Sibirica crowding among 

 them, and that first glory of the tulip 

 family Kaufmanniana holding outspread 

 back of and above the little blue and 

 white multitude its lily-like flowers — 

 flowers which only open to the sun. 

 Tulipa Kaufmanniana is costly, I admit, 

 and growing more so, but as in the case of 

 Darwin and May-flowering tulips, many of 

 which are rapidly increasing in value, de- 

 lays are dangerous. Therefore, buy now 

 if possible. I must have often described 

 it before — its general color within the 

 flower a rich cream, running into 

 clear yellow toward the centre 

 of the bloom; on the outside of 

 each petal a broad band of 

 dull reddish rose. To myself 

 I called it a water lily long 

 J^k before I read that it had 



been often described as the 

 water lily tulip. In warm 

 corners it has opened with 

 me (latitude of Boston) as 

 early as March 25th, 

 though its usual flowering 

 time in our climate is mid- 

 V April. 



Among the florists' vari- 

 eties of crocus, the one with 

 true magnificence of form and 

 color is Crocus purpureus, var. 

 grandiflorus. Magnificent is a 

 large adjective to apply to a low- 

 growing flower; ordinarily one should 

 reserve it for the altheas, or the finer 

 gladiolus, sensational in their beauty. 

 But it is a fact that people unaccustomed to 

 the sight of so large and fine a crocus as this 

 can sometimes not be persuaded that it is a 

 crocus; therefore, the word may be per- 

 mitted. And when close-growing numbers 

 of this particular beauty are near other 

 close colonies of Scilla Sibirica, there is then 

 a spring effect worth going far to see. 

 Maximilian, a clear light lavender, is a 

 favorite with me. Madame Mina, white 

 with rich lavender stripes the length of its 

 fine petals, is a beauteous flower and Reine 

 Blanche, of which mention has just been 

 made, one of the loveliest imaginable 

 whites. Mont Blanc, white, is also very 

 fine — in these whites, and in Madame 

 Mina as well, the rich orange stigma gives 

 a very glowing effect as one looks down into 

 the crocus cup. As for the yellow crocuses, 

 I never look at them if I can help it! I 

 have a few remnants of them from mis- 

 guided purchases of years gone by, but I 

 am always meaning to clear them out and 

 always forgetting to do it till their small 

 squat flowers are gone and the track of the 



