44 JOUENAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
opinion of some experts may be mixed with the soil and placed next 
the bulbs at planting time. My own practice has been to apply them as 
a top dressing soon after jjlanting, mixing them in with a hand fork in 
the covering of soil above the bulbs but not in immediate contact with 
them. Half a pound of basic slag or 1^ ounce of bone meal to 
each square yard is probably the best prescription. It will be useful to 
remember with regard to manure and strong loam that the more Poeticus 
blood there is in any variety the better will it enjoy strength both of food 
and soil. 
As to Lifting. — After one, two, or three years, as the case maybe, the 
bulbs must be taken up and the offsets they have produced separated from 
them ; and it is even more important to be right in the time of lifting 
than in the time of planting. It is, I believe, to errors in lifting that we 
may trace many of the failures or half- successes which are sometimes 
com^Dlained of in the cultivation of Narcissi. The rule laid down for me 
years ago by an expert grower was this — in the matter of hfting better be 
too early than too late. My own experience has amply borne out this 
rule. Some of the varieties have no period of bulb rest : i.e. they begin to 
13ut out the roots for their new season's growth before the old season's 
foliage has begun to die away. This is especially the case with the 
Poeticus varieties — but it is not confined to them— and those varieties 
which do rest rest only for a short time. Now, if the bulbs be lifted after 
new rootlets have been put forth, these new roots, unless the bulbs be 
immediately replanted, must die off, and the vigour of the bulb will be 
diminished. In the case of delicate sorts, or where much new growth has 
taken place, the consequences may be most serious, the constitution of the 
bulb permanently injured. There is a great temptation to leave the bulbs 
in the ground until the foliage has quite died down, for they are much 
more easy to handle when taken up late in this way. But stick to the 
rule " better too early than too late." If you should take up the bulb a 
little too early no real harm is done : the flower may be a little smaller the 
following year, but the bulb will be healthy ; but if you are too late the 
consequences may be disastrous. 
Only experience and experiment can teach how soon fresh root growth 
is to be expected in any particular variety. But the Poeticus varieties, 
Maximus, and Odorus require to be lifted before they show any sign of 
fading foliage. Most of the other sorts I lift, and I think it is a safe rule, 
as soon as possible after the fading of the leaves has decidedly set in. 
Even doing this, and working hard at it, I always find before I can get 
my whole stock lifted that some of the varieties have begun to make fresh 
growth. 
When the bulbs are lifted the offsets of the commoner sorts may 
generally be separated by carefully pulling apart ; but this is too rough- 
and-ready a plan for dividing the less forward offsets of the more valuable 
kinds. In the case of these any small portion of the base which still 
connects the offsets with the mother-bulb should be cut through with a 
sharp knife ; and it is better not to separate any bulbs where there is 
danger of cutting any part of the bulb except the base. 
If the sun is shining when the bulbs are being lifted I place them at 
»once under shade, as I cannot but think that the sudden change into hot 
