64 
THE CROCUS. 
This third season they may be taken up and 
replanted in fresh ground as before ; and this 
time they will be best in drills drawn three 
inches deep, and six inches from drill to drill ; 
place the bulbs three or four inches apart, and 
when you cover in the earth, draw up the soil so 
as to ensure a good three inches of soil above 
the crowns. The greater pax't will bloom 
this fourth season, and the first thing to do 
will be to select the good ones that you mean 
to keep from such as you will despise. Mark 
every one that forms anice round hollow cup, or 
something approaching to it, with broad petals 
to touch one another the whole length, round 
ended and thick, for these are all necessary 
to make one worth saving at all. Put labels 
to them, describing them, so that you cannot 
make a mistake in taking them up ; and at 
taking up time, go to the mai-ked ones first, 
and having secured them with their offsets 
and increase, take up the remainder all in one 
basket, or bag, for you have no interest in 
saving them separately ; but as it may be that 
they do not all bloom, recollect that the un- 
bloomed ones should be separately saved, to 
be grown till they do fiower. 
THE TWO CLASSES OF CROCUS. 
For the purposes of the florist, it is sufiicient 
to divide this flower into two very distinct 
classes. These are the spring-flowering crocus, 
and its hundreds of varieties, and the autumn 
blooming kinds, which are now becoming 
numerous. The management of both is as 
nearly alike as the two seasons admit of. 
They are taken up on the decay of the foliage 
and ripening of the seed, and it matters not 
hoAv soon they are planted again, for they 
take no harm in the ground in a genial flower 
garden where thei'e are borders. Alternate 
patches of autumn and spring flowering sorts 
greatly assist in the effect produced in their 
respective seasons. The rich purple of some 
of the autumn flowering kinds, when flowers are 
getting scarce and dwarf ones especially so, is 
valuable ; and the spring flowering varieties, 
with their numerous colours, form the first and 
most brilliant features of the flower garden, and 
are of themselves " a host." Many gardeners 
edge their clumps and beds with close rows of 
these bright varieties ; but it is by no means 
consistent with good general effect. By put- 
ting them in patches, and not too near to 
each other, the general effect is better. When 
they are alone, and if the quantity is appor- 
tioned a little to that of the things that are to 
accompany or surround them, the border may 
be kept in the best possible oj;der, not all bril- 
liance one week and all blank the next. The 
succession of flower may be kept up in borders 
with a very little trouble, because the earliest 
or spring flowers are for the most part peren- 
nials, and if the border were once planted, it 
need only be mended when any thing fails for 
two, three, or more seasons together ; but if 
the room is so circumscribed as to require one 
thing removed to make room for another, the 
case is altered and the work increased. The 
crocus may have its little patches near the 
front, at such distances as to allow of other 
patches of bulbs in the same line, or a little 
farther back, according to the height. The 
early tulip, the snowdrop, the hyacinth, the 
various daffodils and narcissuses, the primrose 
and polyanthus, and various other subjects 
which bloom with or immediately succeed it, 
render it necessary to plant the crocus with a 
view to its contemporary or succeeding flowers; 
but there is one use that could be made, but 
that we have never seen made by any but ^ 
ourselves. As subjects for the geometrical 
beds in those flower gardens which form a 
whole figure, they are without exception the 
most brilliant and the most independent of all 
the subjects we know of. They have, in the 
first place, a great diversity of colour ; dark 
and light purple, white, and golden yellow. 
These colours are distinct, and as most of the 
Dutch or geometrical gardens have four differ- 
ent patterns or forms of beds, the whole 
figure might be occupied with the four colours. 
Many we have seen with six beds of a pat- 
tern, and four patterns. So that six might 
be occupied with white, six with light blue or 
lilac, six with dark blue or purple, and six 
with yellow. In so occupying beds of this 
kind, they must be planted at such distance as 
will allow of other subjects between. They 
ought to be in patches a foot distant every 
way ; this would allow of the same diver- 
sity in hyacinths to follow the crocuses. The 
red L'ami de Coeur, and the dark purple 
L'ami de Coeur, form two excellent colours ; a 
dwarf early white, • and a dwarf early light 
blue, would complete the four sorts of beds, 
and give a feature totally different as the cro- 
cuses go off. However, our only business 
is with the crocus, which to be effective should 
be all one colour in a patch, and so also all 
one colour in a bed.. There is then a bold- 
ness and decision about the work, no distance 
spoils the figure or the coloui'S ; but if you 
mix the colour in a patch or in a bed, there is 
nothing like distinctness of character to be 
seen when close, and at the least distance the 
variety is lost in a confused and undecided 
shade. We cannot help recommending the 
crocus for geometrical gardens, or as an early 
feature for all borders. We cannot too strongly 
impress upon the cultivator the propriety of 
keeping the colours distinct, and of choosing 
his sorts by the breadth and bluntness of the 
petals, that they may form a cup when ex- 
panded. 
