3o6 



THE BOOK OF GARDENING. 



responsible for the majority of the failures recorded against 

 them. Popularly it is supposed that so long as, say, the 

 Dutch bulbs are in the soil before " Christmas, this will suffice. 

 Such is a great mistake. The time to plant is as soon as they 

 are procurable. Narcissi are frequently left out of the soil far 

 too long, with the result that instead of first making plenty of roots, 

 they develop foliage, and flowers are conspicuous by their absence. 

 August and September are the best months in which to plant 

 Narcissi (including, of course, Dafl'odils) ; for though some kinds are 

 accommodating enough to give a fair percentage of flowers if put 

 in later, the way to ensure success is to plant early. And so it 

 is with many other bulbs. Lilies deteriorate very quickly when 

 left out of the soil, and failures innumerable are attributable to 

 neglect of this important matter by the cultivator. 



Where to plant bulbs and tubers is a matter dependent 

 largely upon local circumstances. Some are best planted between 

 other subjects which form, as it were, a kind of ' natural 

 protection. Many of the choicer Lilies, for instance, might 

 with advantage be interspersed between Rhododendrons, Roses, 

 and the usual occupants of the shrubbery border, providing they 

 are not actually under such. The first-named, in particular, are 

 admirably adapted for associating with the taller-growing Lilies. 

 Whole beds, again, might be devoted to the culture of bulbs and 

 tubers, grouping, say, some of the Lilies in the centre, and then 

 disposing others according to height gradations and colour 

 variations until the actual edge is reached. Even this might 

 very well consist of the choicest spring-flowering bulbs, which 

 give a mass of colour early in the year, and then the foliage dies 

 down. In the borders themselves, good clumps of bulbs are 

 preferable to a few straggling lines. Beds which are likely to 

 be utilised for the ordinary summer occupants are not the best 

 places in which to grow spring bulbs, some of which it is 

 necessary to lift before they are ripe, to the certain detriment of 

 the floral display the succeeding season. 



In parks and pleasure-grounds where the closely-shaven lawn 

 is not considered the be-all and end-all of a well-kept garden, 

 there is no more beautiful way of employing some of the most 

 effective of bulbs and tubers than by naturalising. What, for 

 example, has a more charming effect than the elegantly chequered 

 purple Snake's Head {Fritillaria Aleleagris), rearing its gracefully 

 drooping bell-shaped head above the fresh green grass of spring. 

 True, it is only a native plant ; but what a gem ! There 



