watered and though there is a sUght chance that after two or three 
years they may regain their Hfe and strength, it would hardly pay 
most of us to give them care and garden room while waiting. 
I shall not go into the methods of proper storage for bulbs, as 
different kinds require different treatments, but the manner of 
storage would greatly affect the chances of bloom. If tender bulbs 
are kept in too low a temperature they are as surely ruined as others 
would be if kept in too hot a place. 
Bulbs will not bloom well if they have been forced in a hot house 
the year before though care and good nourishment will restore them 
after a year or two by which time the small new bulbs will be avail- 
able. The original will probably be exhausted as bulbs sold for this 
purpose have generally reached their maximum size. 
House bulbs sometimes do not produce blooms if they are brought 
too soon into a high temperature, or if they are kept in too hot a place. 
In the case of bulbs and corms which have flowered profusely 
one year and refuse to bloom the next, if the foHage has not been 
injured, the soil may have been so poor as to affect them, or, if the 
summer has been very hot and dry, and they have been exposed to a 
thorough baking from the sun, they are practically ruined. 
One of the members of our Garden Club reported a dearth of 
snow-drop blossoms this year and having cut the blossoms liberally 
last spring, thought that might have affected them. Having written 
to an authority on the subject I insert his answer: 
"Dear Miss Williams: In reply to your note let me say that if last 
year you cut the snow-drop flowers without removing the green leaves 
with them this should in no way have injured the plants but rather 
have helped them. But if in removing these you took one or more 
of the green leaves at the base this v/ould undoubtedly destroy their 
strength for another season. But I am tolerably sure that the main 
cause of their unsatisfactory flowering with you this year is due 
to our hot dry summer seasons which prove very disastrous to snow- 
drop bulbs. The same thing even is true of crocuses and the only way 
to keep either of them successfully is to put a heavy covering of leaf 
mulch over them throughout the summer, which keeps the ground 
somewhat moist and prevents drying and death of the bulbs. 
This looks by no means tidy in a garden and on this account is 
seldom resorted to. I fear therefore that you may find it necessary, 
as do most others, to renew your supply of bulbs, from time to time." 
Therefore, cutting the blooms cannot affect hardy bulbs and they 
do better and last longer if the flowers are cut, as an effort to form 
