October, 
IgII 
GARDEN NOTES 
This department is conducted by an experienced and practical landscape architect, who extends an invitation to the readers of 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS to send to the Garden Editor inquiries on any matter pertaining to the developing of the 
garden and the home grounds. Letters accompanied by return postage will be answered promptly by mail. Replies that are of general benefit 
will be published in this department. 
More About Bulbs 
By NORMAN L. CHESTER 
HIS is the season for potting bulbs, for 
house flowering, and for completing 
outside planting, which may be done 
up to the middle of the month unless un- 
toward local conditions and frosts prevail. 
The amateur gardener will learn from ex- 
perience that bulbs planted sparsely never 
produce pleasing effects. Instead, one should 
plan beds or borders so the spring blossom- 
ing may produce a pattern of rich color, and 
not a thin, spotted appearance, for one must 
take into account the fact that the flowers 
will have little green other than their own to 
offset them. As the frosts come on the bulb 
garden should be covered with a protecting 
mulch. Old leaves saved from the fall rak- 
ings are excellent for this purpose. Indeed, 
the garden-maker should always have a 
“leaf bin” for storing up such leaves, thus 
giving him a good supply of mulching ma- 
terial. Jt is a common error among those 
who lack experience to mulch skimpingly— 
that is to say, to run the mulch just over the 
surface covered by the planting—whereas it 
should extend a couple of feet over and be- 
yond the borders of a bed where possible. 
This is explained by the fact that the mulch 
may be regarded as a blanket on top of the 
bed to keep the plants warm, and to do this 
it must “hang” over them. With the ap- 
proach of warm days in early spring, part of 
the mulch may be removed, of course, but it 
is much better not to remove it all at once. 
Bulbs need moving around to obtain the best 
results, and although Tulips and Crocuses 
may have come up well enough for several 
seasons, moving them will greatly benefit 
their next season. 
Although September is the best time for 
planting Tulips, as it is for planting Crocus, 
Narcissus, Daffodils, Jonquils, Winter Aco- 
nite, it often happens that the beds or bor- 
ders in which these bulbs have already been 
set in past seasons, or where they are to be 
started anew, are occupied by later flower- 
ing perennials, which makes it impossible to 
plant bulbs therein until October, when 
these perennials will be out of the way. In 
selecting Tulips, the single varieties are rec- 
ommended for early flowering and gar- 
den appearance. Of course, the double 
flowered varieties have their loyal admirers 
also. Such varieties remain in bloom 
longer than single Tulips, but to the writer’s 
mind nothing quite takes the place of the 
loveliness of the single flowers. In planting 
late Tulips the amateur gardener must bear 
in mind the fact that in order to give these 
time to reach that full development of the 
gorgeous bloom that is their glory, the 
planting beds cannot be utilized for other 
things sufficiently early on their account to 
make it practicable at all times to introduce 
late Tulips into the smaller of our gardens. 
The Crocus ought to have been in the 
ground in September, and no time should 
be lost in setting out its bulbs, choosing a 
sunny situation and a soil that assures good 
drainage. Crocus bulbs are enterprising 
and grow on even though they are not put 
in the soil; that is the reason late planting 
is never to be encouraged. 
Narcissus bulbs may still be planted. As 
the Narcissus, Daffodil and Jonquil are 
perfectly hardy, there are few flowering 
bulbs which give the garden-maker such 
thorough satisfaction. In planting Narcis- 
sus, remember that they are far more ef- 
fective in clumps, although if hundreds of 
them are available they form an exquisite 
adjunct when scattered, naturalized, through 
the tall-growing grasses of a light grove. 
Set the Narcissus bulbs about six inches 
apart and about four inches deep. 
It is a pity that the lovely Snowdrop (Ga- 
lanthus nivalis) does not receive more en- 
couragement in the home garden. Hardly 
is the snow gone before its dear little flow- 
ers appear, and after they are once set out 
under proper conditions the bulbs of the 
Snowdrop remain fruitful and blossom 
from one year to another with great con- 
stancy. Snowdrops should always be 
planted as thickly as possible—naturalized 
by scattering them about the lawn will al- 
ways amply reward one’s effort in the ex- 
periment. 
Two other dainty flowers, Chionodoxa, 
with its deep-blue blossoms, and the blue- 
flowered stars of the Scilla (Scilla Sibirica) 
may be planted like the Snowdrop, and to 
these bulbs may be added the Winter Aco- 
nite, whose yellow blossoms deserve much 
more attention than they receive at present. 
Potting bulbs for indoor winter flowering 
should not be delayed, for they must be 
given plenty of time in which to root well 
before they will start the growth that leads 
to mature blossoming. Perhaps the most 
satisfactory method of indoor bulb garden- 
ing 1s to start the bulbs in six-inch pots, each 
pot containing several. Only bulbs of the 
same variety should be planted in the same 
pots. Before putting in the soil, soak the 
pots in hot water and then in cold. This 
ensures their keeping the potting soil moist 
in the beginning. Next put in a few pieces 
of broken pot to facilitate drainage at the 
bottom. Cover this with a thin layer of 
sphagnum moss or cocoanut fibre, such as 
one may obtain from any florist or seeds- 
man. Having partially filled the pot with 
soil, until the tops of the bulbs set upon it 
come nearly to the top of the rim of the pot, 
fill in the rest of the pot, allowing, of course, 
sufficiently for watering space and leaving 
the necks of the bulbs just peeping above the 
soil level. 
After potting the bulbs, they must under- 
go a process known as plunging. That is, 
they should be set outside in some protected 
part of the garden in their pots, on a layer of 
ashes and filled in with a mulch of ashes, 
tanbark or some other protecting material of 
the sort. Another method is to stand the 
pots on the floor of a cool cellar, which gives 
access to plenty of air. Plunging facilitates 
the growth of the roots which are to bring 
to the bulb the nourishment that will sus- 
tain the flowering period. Three months 
after potting the bulbs should become 
firmly rooted. When one wishes to force 
the bulbs into bloom after that, the pots 
may be lifted from the “plunge” as _ re- 
quired and brought into the heat of the 
house. They will then produce flowers in 
four or five weeks. 
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