66 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Culture out of doors. — As far as the preparation of the soil, 

 planting, and general management goes, we may well follow the 

 Dutch growers, except that their arrangement in the beds is not 

 to be desiderated. Their beds, of course, are of immense size,, 

 and they begin by planting the largest bulbs of a sort at one end 

 of the bed, and gradually decrease the size of the bulbs, finish- 

 ing off with very small ones. If the end is in the middle of a 

 row, they begin again with the large bulbs of another variety 

 and finish with the small ones, and the effect of a large bed of 

 many varieties is not very good ; but utility rather than beauty 

 is aimed at, and the spikes are cut off almost as soon as the 

 flowers open to allow of the full development of the leaves. 



In our English gardens we would plant bulbs of a uniform 

 size, and they would be planted either in beds or borders, the 

 colours mixed, or one colour or variety by itself. Beds of red r 

 blue, or white varieties are very effective, and the single varieties 

 are much to be preferred to the double ones. The nature of the 

 soil is very important, and I must confess that, in this respect, 

 we have none like unto that deep sandy soil in which the bulbs 

 are cultivated in Holland. It is at least half pure white sand, 

 and so light that whole gardens would be blown away if precau- 

 tions were not taken to prevent it. We can, however, have a 

 deep soil, well manured, and it is easy to add sand when neces- 

 sary, and also, when planting, place a little clean river sand under 

 and over each bulb. Plant out in October, and the crown of 

 the bulbs should be three inches under the surface. 



In Holland, owing to the intense cold, it is necessary to pro- 

 tect the bulbs in winter ; but in England this is not necessary, 

 although it was done years ago, when people had to pay as much 

 for a bulb as they can now purchase a hundred for, and every 

 one of the hundred would be better varieties than the one costing 

 so much. The beds were covered in those days by an arrange- 

 ment of iron hoops bent over them in winter, and mats thrown 

 over the hoops. In spring a light framework of wood was built 

 over the beds, and shading was fixed to it, to run up and down 

 with cords and pulleys, to protect the flowers from driving rain, 

 high winds, and frost. No such pains are taken now, nor is it 

 desirable. I would, however, advise covering the surface of the 

 beds with cocoa fibre refuse ; it is cleanly and looks well, no 

 doubt it also helps to keep out intense frosts. When the flowers 



