82 



HYACINTHS AFTER HOUSE CULTURE. 



kinds can often be happily used for banks of this 

 sort, but in a spot exposed to the north and east 

 like this tlie effect is never so tidy and pleasing as 

 when the planting is solely of evergreens. The 

 wonderful effects of color that can be given with 

 evergreen growth, in our latitude even, is a delight- 

 ful surprise in store for those not familiar with it. 

 The broad mass of Douglas' golden juniper partly 

 shown at the edge of the group, on the extreme 

 right, appears like a bright gleam on a sombre 

 bank. The effect is particularly pleasing as seen 

 when driving over the road near the water's edge. 

 These dwarf trees are never trimmed, recjuiring 



none. Their nature is as dense as it is possible for 

 them to grow without choking, inclining always to 

 breadth rather than to height. Once well Started 

 they are a constant pleasure. 



A little picture in black and white of course fails 

 to more than suggest the beauty of such a scene ; 

 but it affords a valuable lesson in grouping, so little 

 understood. We can give but a single view, but 

 walking in front or among the trees a succession 

 of beautiful effects is produced. From the piazza 

 of the residence the view of the landscape and 

 water is perfect ; the low trees enhance its beauty, 

 and do not impede it in the least. 



HYACINTHS AFTER HOUSE CULTURE. 



Take the good when you lose the best. I know 

 some people who grow hyacinths in earth instead 

 of water for winter flowering, and always discard 

 them in spring as soon as flowering time is over, 

 under the impression that they will not bloom again. 

 This is a great mistake, for though the spikes of 

 the second growth are smaller, they are very use- 

 ful and pleasant to look at in spring if planted in 

 out of the way nooks and corners to surprise us 

 the next spring time. I find that the bulbs that 

 have been grown in water are more exhausted, but 

 if they have been fairly planted in good earth and 

 allowed to dry off gradually after blossoming time 

 there will be a sure reward. 



My own box is like a miniature garden, being in a 

 box covered on the outside with birch bark, filled 

 with sandy loam, and the bulbs planted for effect, 

 the taller spikes to the center and a border of 

 miniature hyacinths along the edge. The pretty 

 little grape hyacinth fills in the corners. 



Scillas and snowdrops soon recover and go on 

 blooming during after years, and tulips are not long 

 recruiting. It is a wonderful flower, this hyacinth, 

 and a general favorite, though many economical 

 people think it an expensive flower because it will 

 not bloom the second year in the house. That is 

 too much to expect ; there is surely some spot out of 

 doors where they can be planted, and return again 

 after many days. It seems strange in looking over 

 any catalogue, to see the list of varieties that have 

 been raised since the sixteenth century when there 

 was only four sorts, the double blue, purple and 

 violet, and the single. There is one special con- 

 venience about this plant for the house — it is less 

 affected by changes of temperature than any other 

 and will even stand a slight degree of freezing. I 

 have often tried to get the English blue-bell. 



HyacintliHS non-scriptus, but have never found it 

 in any seedman's catalogue. In England it grows 

 in woods and copses, by the side of ditches, 

 bank of streams and elsewhere, and has beautiful 

 drooping bells that are of an intense deep blue, 

 growing only on one side of the stem. The bulbs 

 are often sought for to make starch. In the lan- 

 guage of flowers the colored hyacinth means "play " 

 sport, while a white flower signifies " unobtrusive 

 loveliness." The old bulbs of our window garden 

 generally gives us pretty little spikes the third year 

 when planted out of doors, and then seem to decay 

 and disappear. Annie L. Jack. 



[Our forefathers had quite a variety of hyacinths 

 also. In i6iz a curious work was published in 

 France by a monk, Louis Liger d' Auxerre, which 

 was, as the publisher informs us, "newly done into 

 English "in 1706. He tells us that "the hyacinth 

 of several colors is one of the prettiest flowers that 

 is. Its flowers grow in the form of little cups, and 

 rise out of certain parts which resemble little nar- 

 row pipes, and when these flowers are blown they 

 are turned in, and so represent a sort of lily. Na- 

 ture seems to have formed them with intent to raise 

 the admiration of spectators. The hyacinths multi- 

 ply, as well as many other flowers, by the seed 

 sown, as is hereafter directed. The bulbs that 

 spring from it do not yield flowers till the fourth 

 year, and are not always of the same color with the 

 hyacinths that bore the seed ; for, oftentimes from 

 a white hyacinth we raise a red one, or a white one 

 from a red one." Those who have tried it say that 

 if the flowers from bulbs that have bloomed in the 

 house, are plucked off in the bud for four years, the 

 fifth year bulb is nearly as good as the original. 



Thomas Meehan.] 



