538 
THE TULIP FANCY. 
bulbs will be increasing fast, and if he begins 
with only one of a sort of the few cheap and 
good varieties, he will in a year or two have 
such an increase that he will be able to plant 
a considerable bed. He should begin with 
clean flowers only ; never mind how cheap 
they may be, if they are clean they will 
always be fit for a best bed. Let us look 
rather to cheap good things than dear ones. 
Roses. Byblomens. Bizarres. 
Madame Vestris. Heine de Sheba. rolypkemus. 
Triumph Royale. Siam. Sanzoe. 
Catalani. David. Surpass Catafal- 
Eosa Blanca. Rubens. que. 
Lavinia. Holmes' King. Chavbonnier. 
Cceiu- Blanche. Diogenes. Flatoff. 
Compte de Vir- Washington. Globe, 
gines. Violet Alexandre. Titian. 
Camuse. Grotius. Tabius. 
Cerise belle forme. Alcon. Duke of Clarence. 
Aglaia. DucdeBourdeaux. High Admiral. 
Manteau Ducal. Franciscus Primus. Glencoe. 
Lucetta. Marcellus. 
With these to begin with, and which can be 
had reasonably of any fancier, will be laid the 
foundation of a good bed : not but that there 
are flowers as good as any mentioned here, 
and there may be some better ; but these are 
clean, which is a great point, — healthy, strong 
growers, which is another point ; they are very 
unlike each other, which is highly important, 
and they will, by merely multiplying then;, 
form a very showy, clean and interesting bed 
at any time. It will be easy to find rather 
dear additions, but it may be as well to say 
that Rose Magnificent, and Bijou would be 
superb additions to the Roses ; the Duke of 
Northumberland and Queen of the North 
would be fine among the Byblomens ; and 
the Duke of Devonshire and Tom Brown 
would be fine additions to the Bizarres. With 
or without these, the young amateur may 
grow his bed of tulips in the open ground 
until his thirty-six bulbs become three hundred 
and sixty, if he please ; and if there happen to 
be a fine May, which is not uncommon, he 
will have a week or two's bloom instead of 
twice the length, but his bulbs will rapidly 
increase. Let no one, therefore, be deterred 
from growing tulips, for want of a stage and 
awning. They are as fine as most flowers 
without any protection, and by beginning 
with these few, which will increase every 
year, he will soon produce enough for a bed 
worth protecting. Let the earth be dug out 
two feet deep, let the gi'ound be well drained, 
the tulips planted in four feet wide beds, six 
inches apart every way, and keep such account 
of the names or numbers of each, as shall 
prevent their names being mismatched or 
lost. Until they have increased enough to 
be worth arranging in their proper rows, 
they may be planted in sorts with labels to 
them. These labels may have the names, or 
numbers referring to names, and they should 
be carefully stored with the sort they belong 
to. They should be planted full three inches 
deep, taken up when the top of the flower- 
stem shrivels, and be put away in the dry 
and the shade. As soon, however, as the 
flower declines, the seed-pod should be taken 
off; otherwise it keeps exhausting the root to 
perfect the seed ; whereas, if removed, the stem 
will begin to decay soon after the bloom, and 
the bulbs should be taken up before the green 
is entirely out of the stem. The stem should 
be cut off an inch above the bulb, and the 
earth not cleaned off nor the fibres taken 
away until the bulb has been dug up a week 
or a fortnight, when they may be cleaned and 
placed away in their boxes until planting time. 
Another point is worth mentioning. When 
the spikes are just through the ground in the 
spring, the surface of the earth should be 
stirred, and all the lumps broken so as to lay 
close round the plants, for it lets the air into 
the roots, and greatly facilitates the growth of 
the plant. The tulip is certainly not calcu- 
lated to stand so well, exposed to all weathers, 
as it does when protected from sun, wind, and 
rain ; but it is astonishing how it closes itself 
against all sorts of violence from without. 
When rain approaches, the cup is so close 
that no shower could penetrate, and when the 
sun becomes genial, the petals expand. The 
perfection of the bloom may, if you think it 
worth while, be prolonged by an awning of 
mats or cloth, which may be placed upon 
hoops that are made to cross the bed high 
enough to avoid touching the tallest of the 
flowers. These mats should be thrown on 
when the sun comes hot, and also to protect 
against heavy falls of hail, snow, or violent 
rains. The offsets of tulips, particularly the 
smallest, should be planted in the early part 
of October, or many would be lost, as the 
smallest often shrivel during the winter, and 
die. Early planting saves all these casualties, 
and promotes their growth and early maturity. 
The first week in November is early enough 
for the best bed, or rather the best grown and 
principal bulbs ; but from the moment the 
bulb commences growth and shows the spike, 
it begins to suffer. We hope to see many 
who intend some day to have an awning and 
a proper stage for a fine bed of tulips, begin 
buying the cheap sorts we have numbered, 
and plant them in the outer borders or beds, 
till they have multiplied sufficient for a stage 
and awning;. 
