12 BULLETIN 28, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 
PLANTING MOTHER BULBS. 
In planting, care must be taken not to break off the baby bulblets. 
The scooped and scored mother bulbs with bulblets attached are 
planted in the field in beds about 36 inches wide and of any desired 
length, probably in the majority of instances with their bases up. 
Excellent results have been obtained at the United States Bulb Gar- 
den by planting Hiem base down. In fact, the limited experiments 
and observations there lead to the belief that the best results will 
follow this practice. Additional observations and experiments will 
be required, however, before this practice of planting the mother 
bulbs can be unqualifiedly recommended. 
The bulbs should be placed about 4 inches apart in rows 6 to 8 
inches apart across the beds and covered with from 3 to 4 inches of 
soil. The bulbs in one end of the bed shown in figure 10 have been 
covered with soil. Later, when all the bulbs have been covered, the 
soil will be raked smooth and the bed mulched with 3 or 4 inches of 
litter (straw or grass) for winter protection. At harvest time the 
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Fig. 11. — Colonies of bulblets of hyacinths of the Gertrude variety from scored 
mother bulbs (on the left) and from scooped mother bulbs (on the right), both 
harvested in July, 1911. 
mother bulbs will have practically disappeared and clustered close 
together where each mother bulb was will be found a colony of baby 
bulbs. The bulblets of each colony vary greatly in size and number. 
The difference in the size and number of the bulblets secured by 
means of the two methods is plainly noticeable. (Fig. 11.) 
When harvested in June or early July the bulblets are placed 1 or 
2 inches thick on shelves or in trays in the bulb house to cure. When 
they are sufficiently dried out, which requires four to six weeks, the 
dry roots, dirt, and remains of the mother bulbs are removed and 
the bulblets sorted. The largest and strongest ones make up the first 
grade and the smaller ones the second grade. As previously stated, 
larger but very mam^ less bulblets are secured by means of scoring 
than by scooping. 
Table II shows the comparative results obtained from the scoop- 
ing and scoring methods of propagating hyacinths employed at the 
United States Bulb Garden. 
