NOTE and COMMENT 



Tulip Growing in America. — It is common for dealers 

 to tell their customers that tulip bulbs soon run out and that 

 new bulbs should be purchased each year if the best results 

 are desired. From the standpoint of the dealer it is doubtless 

 very desirable that flower lovers lay in a new supply of bulbs 

 annually, but as a matter of fact, just as good tulips can be 

 grown in America from good stock as anywhere else, as sev- 

 eral growers have already discovered. It is to be understood 

 that when tulips or any other bulbs are forced, either by being 

 grown in w-ater during wdnter or hurried into bloom while 

 planted in the earth in flower pots, the strength of the specimen 

 is very much reduced, but if tulips are allowed to come into 

 bloom naturally in the open ground and to finish their regular 

 period of growth, they do not run out. On the contrary, they 

 increase in numbers and maintain full sized blooms. There 

 seems to be a regular cycle of development in these plants. 

 When very small bulbs are planted, they commonly do not 

 flower the first season, but make bulbs of blooming size for the 

 following year. After flowering these bulbs develop one or 

 more good sized bulbs each of which will produce flowers in 

 succeeding years. In a good season, however, the bulbs may 

 become too large ; that is, they get so big that they begin to 

 develop small bulbs in the axils of the bulb scales and the next 

 season they break up into several smaller ones which must be 

 again planted and grown to maturity as before. The rational 

 way of growing tulips, then, is to plant the good sized bulbs 

 for flowers and at the same time plant the smaller bulbs for 



