THE CULTURE OF BULBS. 
381 
and by judicious selection, a border might be 
so finished as to require nothing but bulbs to 
keep it always during these ten months gay, 
and often rich beyond conception. So little, 
however, are many bulbs thought of in this 
country for the open borders, that few are to 
be seen ; and though they are imported from 
Holland, at moderate prices, in large quan- 
tities, those only that are cultivated in pots, 
and forced into early bloom, seem to create 
any demand. Hyacinths will always be fa- 
vourites, because they can be grown anyhow — 
in mould, in sand, in water and in moss, they 
always reward the purchaser with a bloom. 
In the most wretched alleys and confined 
places in London, a sound bulb will give a 
comparatively good flower. There is nothing 
more certain. The crocus, and some of the 
kinds of narcissus, are rivals in this respect ; 
and this may account for the fact of their 
selling better and in larger quantities than all 
the other sorts of bulbs put together. Early 
tulips are not quite so obedient; they will 
not always return the cultivator a bloom for 
his trouble when pent up in a dark room or a 
smoky town ; but it is quite time bulbs were 
better understood, and more generally culti- 
vated in gardens. Thousands of people do 
not even know that early tulips, narcissus, 
hyacinths and jonquils are perfectly hardy; 
they know they grow in pots and in glasses 
within doors, but they would fancy the bulbs 
lost to be put in the ground. This delusion 
arises from the fact of their seeing them con- 
stantly potted at all nurseries, but rarely 
planted out ; for nurserymen too often keep 
their surplus stock out of sight, and pick out 
the finest of the roots to pass off the next 
season as imported Dutch bulbs. A London 
seedsman played us off this trick last autumn, 
and out of some dozens of narcissus not six 
put up blooms ; this is a very discreditable 
sort of transaction, as it lost us all they cost, 
for we were ashamed to charge for them ; and 
of course it is the last order the same party 
will get from us, so that he will gain nothing 
in the long run. But let it not be misunder- 
stood that roots grown properly in England 
would be worse than those from Holland ; 
only there is a difference between those planted 
in proper beds in autumn and grown well, 
and those which are kept in a window until 
all chance of selling them is gone, and then 
stuck in the ground to save their lives. Let 
us then strongly recommend everybody to 
cultivate bulbs; they are far more beautiful and 
durable than hundreds of herbaceous plants 
now cultivated, and will repay any cultivator 
his cost and trouble. 
Bernard Saunders, of Jersey, and Lockhart, 
of Parsons-green, grow more, and perhaps 
sell more, bulbous roots than many other 
growers put together. They keep a greater 
number of varieties than any houses in Eng- 
land or the Channel Islands. In Saunders's 
catalogue, for instance, there are no less than 
twenty-six varieties of gladiolus — a family 
which we have not mentioned, though perhaps 
worthy of a first place ; twelve kinds of iris ; 
nineteen or twenty sorts of ixia ; twelve dis- 
tinct kinds of lily ; twenty-seven sorts of 
narcissus ; eighteen sorts of sparaxis ; and 
more than fifty distinct families of bulbs, 
enough, in all conscience, to supply the finest 
garden with a border such as has never been 
shown in England ; though perhaps Lock- 
hart, within a sixpenny ride of London, may 
have them planted out in store beds. 
"We have chiefly, in fact entirely, confined 
our remarks to hardy bulbs ; but if we turn 
to the stove and greenhouse kinds, the variety 
is without limit — perfectly endless. One family 
alone is worthy of a house to itself — the 
Amaryllis. It is impossible to conceive a 
more beautiful sight than a good variety of 
these in full flower. So many beautiful 
hybrids have been added to the distinct species 
that they are comparatively worthless, except 
so far as to show the difference between the 
original species and the various crosses. At 
the Earl of Carnarvon's there was at one time 
a most noble collection of very distinct vari- 
eties, which had been obtained by Mr. Lind- 
sey, from seed — having, however, had the 
good fortune to begin from the best collection 
that could be got together by the noble owner, 
from all parts of the world. However, tender 
bulbs may be grown by the hundreds who 
have the convenience ; the hardy ones may be 
cultivated by every body who has a rod of 
ground and good air ; and we cannot too 
strongly recommend immediate attention to a 
subject unaccountably neglected by the lovers 
of flowers. 
A few words on the culture of hardy bulbs, 
taken from the instructions given by Mr. 
Saunders, may not be an unfit conclusion ; we 
only received them recently, having made up 
our mind to commence the cultivation of all 
the best hardy bulbs, and requested hints as 
to anything we might not know from our own 
experience. 
In September or October begin to prepare 
your borders for the cultivation of gladiolus, 
sparaxes, ixias, and other Cape bulbs, by 
digging them a spade deep, burying a good 
stratum of good rotten dung at the bottom — 
about two barrowfulls will do for a bed thirty 
feet long and four feet wide. The soil, in 
general, should be a good friable sandy loam, 
well broken on digging, and rounded on the 
surface, to throw off excessive rains in the 
winter season. As soon as the ground is 
thus prepared and raked smooth, plant the 
