Sept.] FLOWER GARDEN. 501 
free from weeds, and slightly protecting them from frost till the 
spring following, when the plants will appear. Early in May 
place the boxes in the shade, but not under the dropping or shade 
of trees J and in very dry weather give the plants a small portion 
of water J but this should be administered sparingly, lest it should 
rot the young bulbs. In June, when the leaves are decayed, sift 
half an inch of fresh earth over that in the boxes, and on the ap- 
proach of winter place them again in a warm exposure where you 
can give them some slight protection from severe frost. Continue 
the same treatment, winter and summer, till the month of June or 
July, in the third year; the roots may then be taken up, dried and 
treated in the same manner as directed for large bulbs or offsets in 
pages 392 and 393; a few of the strongest roots will flower the 
fourth year, about one half may be expected to flower the fifth, but 
the sixth year every healthy root will exhibit its bloom; and then 
the hopes and expectations of the cultivator will be realized or 
disappointed. He may, however, think himself fortunate if one 
half of the plants that first appeared are in existence at this period, 
and if he can at last find one tulip or hyacinth in five hundred 
deserving a name or a place in a good collection, he may rest per- 
fectly content. 
The tulips raised from seed will each consist of one plain colour 
on a white, dark, or yellow bottom; the period of their breaking 
into different stripes is very uncertain, so much so that it is not 
uncommon to wait ten or twenty years without the desired suc- 
cess, although it sometimes happens, fortunately, to take place the 
first, second, or third year after their blooming; where the collec- 
tion of breeders is numerous, (a name given to those self-coloured 
tulips,) there may be reasonable expectations of procuring one or 
two valuable flowers annually: a poor dry soil is most likely to 
produce these effects; and a single instance has occurred where 
forty breeders out of fifty became broken or variegated in one sea- 
son in a situation of this description. 
New sorts of breeders are procured from seed, but such only as 
have tall strong stems, with large well formed cups, and clear in 
the bottom, are worth cultivating. 
Note. — The various kinds of tender bulbous-rooted flowering 
plants may be propagated as above directed, but the boxes in 
which the seedlings grow must be placed in a green-house or hot- 
house in winter, according to the respective necessities of the 
various kinds. 
Transplant Perennial and Biennial Flower Roots. 
The latter end of this month is a very proper period for trans- 
planting the various kinds of seedlings, perennial and biennial flow- 
ers, out of the flower-nursery into the beds, borders, and pleasure 
grounds, where they are designed to bloom. You may likewise 
slip and plant out double catchily, pinks, London pride, lychnideas, 
dracocephalums, sweet-william, thrift,, scarlet-lychnis, virginian 
spiderwort, double rose-campion, double rocket, virginian lung- 
