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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



OCTOB 



MONTAGUE 

 GLASS 



Cfl Here is an author to be reckoned with to-day. The phenomenal interest aroused 



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is well known to everyone. 



flfl What surprised everybody was the fact that, notwithstanding the hundreds of 



thousands of readers these stories had serially, their appearance in book-form was 



greeted with delight by a brand new audience which still spreads every month. 



tjf And now comes a second volume of tales entitled 



"ABE and MAWRUSS" 



Being further inimitable adventures of 

 the genial firm of Potash & Perlmutter 



^ You will understand why the whole country roars over these tales when you know 

 that the news-stands on the lower East Side of New York " sell out " regularly upon 

 the appearance of a new Potash and Perlmutter story. 



*1 This is pretty good evidence of the truthfulness of Mr. Glass's delightfully 

 humorous character-drawing. 



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Dutch Bulbs for California 

 Gardens 



IUST why the spring-flowering bulbs are not 

 grown in California to a much greater extent 

 than they appear to be was somewhat of a mystery 

 until I had satisfied myself that it was because 

 they were not well enough known. Nowhere in 

 America do many of them do as well as on the Paci- 

 fic Coast, where their culture for commercial pur- 

 poses would easily be a success in many places if 

 only soil and climate and not the cost of labor had 

 to be considered. Again their planting months, 

 October to December, are the ones in which a 

 Californian feels most like gardening, for the fall 

 rains soften the ground and the cooler air is stimu- 

 lating after the long dry summer. It is true their 

 flowers do not awaken us from winter as they do in 

 the East, but they do come after the poorest flower 

 months of the year and are especially welcome as 

 they beautify our gardens when we most expect 

 visitors. Perhaps their unnecessarily greater cost 

 where plants generally are cheap has prevented 

 their greater use; possibly, too, misconceptions of 

 what and how to plant have resulted in some dis- 

 couraging failures. 



First, it may be said that the whole series of dwarf, 

 early-flowering bulbs, such as crocus, snow drops 

 and scillas, so cherished in colder climates because 

 they bloom in the short grass as soon as the snow 

 leaves, are very disappointing under California 

 conditions, where they flower at a time when 

 growth is quite luxuriant. Moreover, success is 

 less certain than in the East and the weeding of the 

 small plants quite a task during the rainy season. 

 Lastly, their places can be taken by California 

 annuals in some cases, as for instance where the 

 pretty "baby blue eyes" (Nemophila insignis) 

 can be used in place of scillas as a ground work for 

 daffodils or white tulips, and that at a very small 

 fraction of the cost. Two of the lesser bulbs, 

 both white, I have seen used quite effectively: 

 the spring snowflake (Leucojum vernum), planted 

 in clumps in shrubbery borders, and the spring 

 star flower {Milla or Triteleia uniflora) , forming an 

 edging to large plantings of yellow daffodils. 



Secondly, no attempt should be made to follow 

 the eastern and European plans of planting formal 

 bulb beds on the lawn, for, of the two chief materials 

 used, early tulips and Dutch hyacinths, the former 

 are almost always a failure and the latter not 

 conspicuously successful. Besides, it can be taken 

 as a general rule that most of the so-called Dutch 

 bulbs make longer stems and hold their colors 

 better if given partial shade. The sunlight tem- 

 pered by the bare branches of deciduous trees gives 

 just about those conditions which the California 

 gardener often gets artificially by erecting lath 

 houses for his plants. 



As to what is worth growing, let me say that the 

 daffodil is the bulb for the Pacific Coast, as I have 

 seen it doing well from Vancouver to Pasadena and 

 thriving in the heavy adobe soils around San Fran- 

 cisco Bay quite as well as in the decayed granites 

 of Southern California. In Central California I 

 have grown Emperor with stems two feet long, and 

 to quote George Ellwanger, " with trumpets large 

 enough for the angel Gabriel." Briefly its require- 

 ments are planting any time from September 

 to December about five inches deep in any garden 

 soil, preferably a heavy one, with no fertilizer except 

 bone flour or meal dug into the ground below the 

 bulbs. Lots of water and freedom from weeds 

 will do the rest. I believe it is impossible to over- 

 water narcissus and, judging from last season's 





