'LOWER 



FOR AUTUMN PILAMTHBIG 



IF YOU WANT BEAUTIFUL BULBOUS FLOWERS 



In your house next Winter or in your garden next Spring 



Y ?^ ST HENDERSON'S FLOWER BULBS 



THIS 



FALL 



The greatest selection of varieties and the highest quality imported into America from Holland, Italy, France, 



Great Britain Asia Minor, China, Japan, Bermuda, etc. 



BULBS FOR FLOWERING IN THE HOUSE AND GREENHOUSE.— There 



is no class of plants that give more satisfaction for this purpose than bulbous 

 plants (bulbs), and with so little skill gives such magnificent results. They 

 are easily managed, and need occupy no space in the window or greenhouse 

 excepting when in bud and bloom. Under suitable treatment they flower 

 with great certainty, and their flowering period may be hastened (forced) or 

 retarded so as to "bring, them in" for certain occasions, or to give a continuous 

 succession of bloom. 



HARDY BULBS FOR OPEN-GROUND PLANTING.— A great many kinds of 

 bulbs are hardy enough to withstand our severe Northern winters. Most of 

 the suitable sorts should be planted in the fall, and they will flower the fol- 

 lowing season, commencing in March or earlier with Snowdrops, Chionodoxas, 

 Scillas, Crocus, Aconites, Bulbocodiums, etc., which are followed in April 

 with Hyacinths, Tulips, Daffodils, and hosts of other bulbous beauties. In 

 May appear late Tulips, late Narcissus, Lily of the Valley, Bleeding Hearts, 

 etc. Again, followed in succession until frost, notably with Paeonias, Iris, 

 Hemerocallis, Lilies, etc. 



FOR GEOMETRICAL OR "DESIGN" BEDDING.— The bulbs best adapted 

 are Dutch Hyacinths and Tulips. In this style of bedding the happiest effects 

 are produced by planting solid bright colors in contrast, and in ordering the 

 varieties it is important to select those that will bloom at the same time and 

 are of proper heights. 



THE FLOWER GARDEN AND HERBACEOUS BORDER are favorite 

 places for growing most hardy bulbs, and here they seem to thrive and give the 

 most pleasure. They should be planted here and there in little colonies among 

 the hardy plants and shrubs. From the border one does not hesitate to gather 

 flowers daily for the house, for fear of spoiling the effect, as would be the case 

 from design beds. Furthermore, in an herbaceous border bulbs are not dis- 

 turbed, the foliage remains uninjured until ripe, thus fulfilling its duty assigned 

 by nature of recharging the bulb with new flowers for the next season's display. 



BULBS RIGHT IN THE SOD ON THE LAWN present a pleasing picture 

 when in bloom, in the early spring. They should be planted in a "hit-and- 

 .rniss" fashion, an irregular group in one place, scattered individuals over there, 

 as one would find wild flowers. Of course, on closely clipped lawns, only very 

 early spring-flowering bulbs can be used, those that flower, ripen and die down 

 before it is necessary to use a mower. Then the summer surface on the lawn 

 will be smooth and green as if no sleeping bulbous beauties were beneath it 

 waiting for their awakening the next spring. The bulbs may be planted with 

 a dibble when the sod is moist and soft after fall rains, but it is better to cut 

 the sod, turn it back, plant the bulbs and press the sod in place. 



"NATURALIZING" HARDY BULBS in semi-wild, outlying grounds is a 

 happy style of simulating nature. Such bulbs should be used as can be planted 

 in quantity, from a dozen to a hundred of a kind in a patch. Fortunately, 

 among bulbous plants we have many that are hardy, thrive and increase in 

 such rough neglected, picturesque places even better than in the prim garden. 



BULBS (including corms, tubers, rhizomes and pips) are the thickened 

 fleshy subterranean stem ends of bulbous plants. The true or feeding roots grow 

 generally from the base of the bulbs; the stems, flowers and foliage from the 

 crown of the bulb or eyes. A bulb therefore is a storehouse for the plant where- 

 in is formed in embryo — after flowering — new leaves, stems and flowers in fact a 

 complete new plant which is protected and sustained within the bulb by the 

 reserve food and energy collected therein during one season for its successor's 

 requirements during the next growing and flowering period. After which the 

 old plant above the bulb and the roots beneath ripen off and die away. The 

 bulb is then in a "dormant" condition during which period — lasting approxi- 

 mately from three to six months — bulbs are taken out of the ground and trans- 

 ported like so many potatoes easily and safely from Continent to Continent, 

 if required, then replanted after which the incipient roots, stems, foliage and 

 flowers develop with as much luxuriance and perfection — conditions being 

 congenial — as if the bulb had remained in its original environment. This 

 explains why — and it should be remembered when buying bulbs — that you can 

 only make them develop the flowers which were formed within them before 

 they were ripened up. If a young small bulb of Hyacinth only contains six 

 bells in embryo on its embryo stalk, or a Lily of the Valley pip only five bells 

 on its incipient spike, or a narcissus bulb only one flower, no one in flowering 

 them can make them produce any more, though good culture will develop larger 

 and better such flowers as the bulbs contained than poor culture. Conse- 

 quently where perfection of bloom the rst season is the desideratv.m, which is 

 usually the case where bulbs are to be " forced " or flowered in the greenhouse 

 or house, then the largest and best bulbs only should be purchased, even if 

 they are higher in price, for best bulbs produce the best flowers. 



Superior bulbs — the pick of the crops — are largely consumed by critical 

 European buyers, the " seconds " and " substitutes " being too often palmed 

 .off on less critical American dealers. We insist — with a penalty attached — 

 On being supplied with the same high grade — true to name — varieties that the 

 Europeans get, and we see that we get this superior grade by personally conduct- 

 ed trials. We have also excluded from our importations many decadent, obsolete 

 varieties and added their more beautiful and strong-constitutioned successors. 



SPECIAL NOTICE. 



Bulbs and roots mature and ripen at different periods during the late sum- 

 mer and autumn, and shipments will be made as follows in the absence of con- 

 trary instructions. 



Our September Shipment includes the general line of Bulbs, such as Hyacinths, 

 Tulips, Narcissi, Crocus, Iris, hiliums Candidum, Formosum and Harrisii, 

 Freesias, Peonies and most miscellaneous bulbs. 



Our November Shipment includes Lily-of-tke-V alley , Spiraea, Gladiolus, 

 Amaryllis, most Lilies, etc. 



The ground is sometimes frozen in northern latitudes by the time our Novem- 

 ber shipments are ready, but, if customers will have the ground covered where 

 the late-maturing sorts are to be planted, with 2 feet of dry leaves, straw or 

 manure, to prevent freezing, the bulbs can be planted with safety when received. 



HENDERSON'S BULB CULTURE 



New and Enlarged Edition 

 Price, 50 cents 



GIVEN FREE 



If asked for ■with orders for not 

 less than $2.00 worth of Bulba 



