10 VIGTOUTAL PBACTIGAL BULB GBOWlNQ. 



tors, upon whose labours must depend success. They put the 

 spike into the bulb by their good culture, and it remains for us to 

 bring that spike to perfection, and it is absolutely certain that if 

 the flower is not already in the bulb it is beyond the power of the 

 most skilful grower to bring it out. True, some men will produce 

 finer results than others with the same material, but this is precisely 

 similar with all kinds of plants. Knowing that the bloom is 

 provided before it reaches us should emphasise to the purchaser 

 the necessity for procuring only the very best, as, though such may 

 entail a trifle more in first cost, they are infinitely the cheaper 

 eventually, because they have the stored power to develop superb 

 flowers, and the skill of the British gardener is more than equal 

 to the task of making the bulb brino' them forth. To go and 

 secure bulbs simply because the price is low, and without paying 

 the slightest regard to their quality, is to court disaster, and to lay 

 up trouble for the grower because he has failed to accomplish an 

 impossibility. 



That errors are made it would be idle to dispute, but they 

 are comparatively rare, and may usually be described as mistakes 

 due to carelessness rather than to lack of knowledge of the plants' 

 requirements. When the veriest tyro sets out to grow bulbs it is 

 probable that he will make some mistakes in their management, just 

 as he w^ould do were he growing any other plants ; but it does not take 

 the man of average common sense long to realise in what direction 

 he has strayed from the proper path, with the result that perhaps his 

 first failure, as far as cultural matters are concerned, is also his last. 



• Let us consider as briefly as may be what are the chief essentials 

 to success in the cultivation of bulbs in beds and borders in the 

 open ground. Two things are of outstanding importance : 1, the 

 preparation of the ground ; and 2, the time of planting. In regard 

 to the former, it is frequently said that under no circumstances 

 nuist manure be added to the soil, but to this ought to be added 

 the qualification, " in such a manner as to come into actual contact 

 with the bulbs." One has not to grow Daffodils many years before 

 the fact is forced upon one that they thrive better, if the soil 

 is poor, when a dressing of natural manure or superphosphate 

 (which is preferred by many experts) has been w^orked in. The 

 main item to keep in view in applying manure is that it is with 

 the second, and not with the first spit. If in the top soil, the 

 bulbs will be in constant contact with it, and the result will be 

 splitting and very few flowers. 



In garden culture, however, it is very often the case that the 

 soil contains enough food for the sustenance of the plants. 

 Successions of flowers are arranged for, and the bulbs are usually 

 planted in the beds which had as their summer occupants Dahlias 

 and other ])lants in whose successful growth a fair amount of 

 manure is re( paired, for they are gross feeding, though not to 

 such a degree as to leave the mould in a thoroughly impoverished 

 state. The result is that ahnost or quite enough food remains to 



