maturating Iftarctssi 
HENRY F. DUPONT, Winterthur, Delaware 
Of the many gardens one can have, there are none which, once 
planned and planted, give more satisfactory results with as little up- 
keep as the one in which Narcissi predominate. The initial cost, other 
than the price of the bulbs, is a negligible one, no grading, sub-draining, 
wall-building, etc., being needed. An open wood-lot, preferably one 
with a gentle slope which has been cleared in part of its underbrush, and 
you have the fundamental requirements of your garden. If one is blest 
with a background of evergreens, trees or shrubs, such as Hemlocks, 
Arborvitae, Kalmias or Rhododendrons, etc., with Cornus Mass, Vibur- 
nums and Spicewood in the foreground, and Virginia Cedars here and 
there among the forest trees in the open, even better effects can be 
obtained; but with simply the contrast of the bare trunks of the trees 
and an undergrowth of spice bushes and wild Viburnums edging the 
adjacent woods, quite lovely results can be had. 
In such a locality as I have described, the paths soon become moss- 
grown and require but an occasional scything; the weeds among the 
bulbs are comparatively few, and once the bulb foliage has died away, 
your garden is indistinguishable from your woodland. If one is troubled 
with field mice, it is wiser to rake away the leaves of the trees after the 
majority have fallen in the Autumn, and this must be done again in the 
early Spring before the bulbs have started their growth, so that each 
plant may have a chance to develop evenly. 
The lay-out, width and arrangement of the paths varies so much in 
each individual situation that it is hardly worth while even to generalize 
on the subject. The width of my main paths is 5 feet 6 inches, and 
seems fairly successful ; but there are also many spaces of varying width 
where one can walk about and around the bulbs. 
Having made up one's mind about the location of the paths, the 
problem of bulb planning and planting confronts us. The general advice 
in catalogues and elsewhere is to scatter the bulbs over the ground 
broadcast with the hand, planting them where they fall. In practice, 
however, it is difficult to do this over any large area and keep the rela- 
tions of the various groups and masses in one comprehensive whole, and 
I find it much simpler to first outline my plantations with fallen twigs 
and branches picked up in the wood. These are found in various 
lengths and shapes, and after removing the side shoots give all the regu- 
larity or irregularity of contour one could desire. When the large planta- 
tions have been laid out, it is a simple matter to connect them by drop- 
ping a few bulbs here and there where they seem to be required. 
As for the actual planting, I use an ordinary pick, finding it much 
quicker than a bulb planter, and I allow enough space for each bulb to 
increase and still remain undisturbed for several years. For the great 
pleasure in a bulb garden is in its permanency, as the first Spring after 
planting, no matter how thickly the bulbs may have been put in, there 
