BULBS 



9 



best planted on sunny banks where the grass does not 

 grow strongly. C. Alleni and C. grandiflora have larger 

 flowers, but for effect in masses are no improvement on 

 the before-mentioned species. 



Colchicum. — Meadow Saffron. These are pretty 

 naturalised in short grass at the edge of glades, 

 the green adding to the attractiveness of their leafless 

 flowers. The commonest forms are C. autumnale and its 

 white variety, but there are numerous other autumn- 

 blooming species that may be utilised. 



Crocus. — The Dutch Crocus in its varied tints, yellow, 

 purple and white are excellent for planting beneath 

 deciduous trees, coming into flower almost ere the snow- 

 drops have departed, and spreading sheets of colour over 

 the ground. Even beneath beech-trees they will suc- 

 ceed. Rabbits and pheasants are their worst enemies, 

 and where these are plentiful it is impossible to establish 

 them. The early flowering C Imperati is pretty, with 

 its soft colouring, on a bank where the grass does not 

 grow rankly, as is the autumn-blooming C. speciosus 

 with its violet-coloured flowers and orange anthers. 



Cyclamen. — The best of these for naturalising are C. 

 coum, which bears its deep cherry-coloured flowers 

 while winter is yet with us and of which there is a 

 white variety, and C. neapolitanum or hederafolium, an 

 autumn bloomer with large marbled leaves produced 

 before the flowers fade. These leaves are particularly 

 handsome through the winter months. The corms 

 attain an immense size sometimes being a foot in 

 diameter. This cyclamen, of which there are red and 

 white forms, does well beneath evergreens, and will 

 carpet the ground under large specimens of Penus 

 insignis with its lovely foliage. C. coum is best planted 

 on a partially shaded bank where it will increase rapidly 

 by self-sown seed. Cyclamens succeed best in porous 

 soil. In the south-west C. persicum may be naturalised. 



