HINTS FOR THE CULTURE OF POPULAR FLOWERS. 
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the first year, is the ridiculous mode of grow- 
ing them with so many branches and trusses 
of flowers. 
Hyacinth. — In the state in which bulbs 
are imported from Holland, almost every 
soil, situation, and temperature will bring 
a bloom ; hence we see them variously 
grown, in earth of all sorts, pots of all 
sizes, wet sand, and water. The denizen of 
a thickly crowded neighbourhood, where 
there is a deficiency of air and light, will 
have his Hyacinths in glasses, and in due 
time a bloom of some kind or other ; nor is it 
certain whether some varieties do not in all 
respects succeed as well in water as in any 
other medium. To grow them in glasses, the 
bulb should not fit the bowl of the glass 
tightly, but should allow air all round it ; the 
water should touch the bottom of the bulb, 
and the glass be placed in the dark for two 
or three Aveeks ; after this, they cannot have 
too much light; but it is questionable whether 
the bulbs do not grow better in opaque vases 
than when the roots are exposed to the light. 
The water must be constantly filled up as it is 
absorbed by the roots, and should be occasion- 
ally changed altogether, in doing which the 
bulbs should be disturbed as little as possible. 
When they are grown in pots, those made on 
purpose should be used: they are deeper and 
narrower than usual. The soil should be the 
loam of rotted turfs two-thirds, and sand one- 
third, the bulbs should be two-thirds in the 
soil ; but as the vigorous growth of the roots 
will frequently push up the bulbs, it is usual 
to bury them two or three weeks in tan, saw- 
dust, or sand; they are then taken out and 
placed where they are to bloom. They are 
easily forced in a common hot-bed. They 
bloom in the highest perfection out of doors. 
They only require to be planted on light rich 
soil, such as that for potting ; and as the frost 
will injure the flower, which comes early, they 
should be protected like Tulips, though they 
are thoroughly hardy, and make a splendid 
show in the common borders. To raise them 
from seed, it should be sown thinly in a common 
garden frame in the autumn; ancl-as they come 
up, towards the spring, they should be carefully 
Avatered until the foliage dies down, when they 
should be taken up, and another bed be made 
on purpose for them of the stuff used for 
potting, and the bulbs be replanted three 
inches apart, but have no water, until October, 
or November, when they begin vegetating 
rapidly ; the lights should be taken off in mild 
weather, and only be placed on at night, and 
be kept on during frost. As they advance in 
growth they require watering regularly, so as 
to keep the soil from drying ; the bulbs will 
swell greatly. When the foliage has once died 
down, they may be taken up and replanted in 
a bed without the protection of glasses, six 
inches apart, and this management be con- 
tinued till they flower, when the bad may be 
given or thrown away, or made common 
flowers for wildernesses, and the best 
carefully planted, year after year, to make 
offsets, and so propagate the varieties. The 
bulbs should never be disturbed until the 
foliage is dead, when they should be laid by 
in a dry cool place till planting time, which is 
from September till the end of November; 
but the middle of October is best. 
Narcissus. — The Narcissus requires but 
little care in blooming roots which are im- 
ported, but if we intend to grow from seed, or 
from the offsets which every year come off 
the old roots, some attention to soil and situa- 
tion is wanted, so also does the raising of new 
varieties. The roots, or bulbs, as they are 
imported from Holland, are grown up to the 
size which is considered perfection for bloom- 
ing ; that is to say, if they were kept in another 
season, they would bloom their best in the 
grower's hands, and not be so fit to export the 
next year. To grow them from this perfectly 
developed state, or rather — for it is nothing 
else — bloom them, a thirty-two or a twenty- 
four sized pot, filled with light rich sandy soil, 
one-third loam, one-third decayed cow-dung, 
and one-third turfy peat, with some good 
crocks at the bottom to form a complete drain- 
age, is all that the grower wants. They should 
be potted with nearly the whole bulb under 
the surface of the soil, which should be as 
high as the top edge of the pot. These should 
be potted in October or November. In a 
month or so the pots may be buried a few 
inches below the surface, in the ordinary 
garden, or they may be placed together in any 
frame, or box, or even in a corner of the 
ground, and covered with sawdust, coal 
ashes, or old tan ; when they have been there 
a month the pots may be taken out and cleaned, 
and the surface of the soil cleared of 'whatever 
covered it, and placed in a cold pit, either to 
grow without forcing, or to be withdrawn, a 
few at a time, for forcing. Air on fine days, 
and perfect protection from frost, are required, 
nor can they be too near the glass. One-half 
the bulbs bloomed early in spring are drawn 
up for want of light ; for the quantity of light 
should ahvays be in proportion to the heat. 
By common attention they will bloom in fine 
order, whether forced in the green-house or 
stove, or in a common hot-bed, or the room of 
a dwelling house. If the Narcissus be planted 
in the open ground, and left to itself, it will, 
in its proper season, come in the finest order, 
and nothing looks much better, in patches of 
half dozen, than the different varieties. Seed 
is sown in pans, or boxes, or large pots, and 
very thinly covered, protected from the hot 
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