14 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
October, 1918 
Some Spring Flowering Bulbs. 
A. Martini 
The amateur and professional 
gardeners always have to plan 
months ahead of time, and just 
now our thoughts are on bulbs for 
spring flowering and as we draw 
our mental pictures of what our 
gardens shall look like after cold 
and dreary winter months, we 
must be thankful to mother nature 
for the number of varieties of 
spring dowering bulbs she so kind- 
ly has given us. From her also 
we can learn how to plant so as to 
get the best effects. I refer to 
planting in masses of one variety. 
Behold the fields of daisies, the 
golden rod, the hardy aster, the 
gentians, the violets, the hepaticas 
or liver worts and so forth. 
Goddess Flora sees that her chil- 
dren are well grouped and so can 
we learn from her how to beautify 
our own homes to please the eye 
and elevate the soul. 
American grown bulbs are as 
yet not grown in sufficiently large 
quantities to supply the general 
market and while the industry is 
developing it will be years before 
we can get along without the 
product from Holland that has 
cheap labor as well as climatic 
conditions greatly in its favor of 
production. While we still wait 
for the bulbs to arrive from Hol- 
land let use make our plans. 
How much money are we going 
to spend? Five dollars, ten, 
twenty or more? Well, whatever 
the amount do not buy the cheap- 
est grades and remember that if 
properly planted the bulbs will 
endure for years. 
Good Crocus varieties are : 
King of the whites, — purpurea — - 
and mammoth yellow. We are of- 
ten advised to plant these all over 
the lawn. This is not good taste 
unless the lawn should prove to be 
a grass plot. Rather plant in ir- 
regular patches along the shrub- 
bery and colors separate, please ! 
Crocus need lots of sunshine. 
Plant about *4 inch deep and five 
inches apart, in moderately rich 
soil — -(never have fresh manure 
come in contact with any kind of 
bulb.) 
Other small sized beautiful 
flowering bulbs are the Squills or 
Scilla Sibirica, blue and white, 
Chionoa, blue, Grape hyacinths, 
blue and white and Snowdrops; 
all of them look best when planted 
in rather large clusters. They are 
perfectly hardy and perennial by 
nature. 
The hardiest of the Narcissi 
that also lend themselves splen- 
didly for naturalizing are, first, 
the true Narcissus poeticus, pure 
whote flowers, the flat crown of 
which has a scarlet ring and is 
everybody’s favorite. Stems carry 
one flower. Thevariety Elvira 
differs in having many flowers to 
a stem and is pure white with a 
yellow cup. Of the short yellow 
trumpet varieties the one best 
and hardiest is Sir Watkin, a 
strong grower, and Stella, which 
blooms a little earlier. Ajax 
princeps belongs to the large 
trumpet varieties as does Golden 
Spur, and both are among the 
hardiest of that class. Of all yel- 
low varieties plant Van Sion or 
Orange Phoenix. The best white 
is Alba plena odorata. 
For planting in circular beds or 
long borders, Tulips are best 
adapted, also planted against 
shrubberies give wonderful effects 
if grouped in separate colors and 
if planted deep enough — 8 inches 
— may be left undisturbed in 
beds that are later used for an- 
nuals. Avoid planting alternate 
colors in one row, space 6 or 8 
inches each way. Varieties are 
many, some of the best and cheap- 
est are : La reine, white, Cottage 
Maid, pink, Chrysolora, yellow, 
Artus, red, Kaiserkroon, red 
edged yellow, a strong grower and 
most effective when planted alone. 
Late flowering and really won- 
derful tulips are Gesneriana ma- 
jor, bright scarlet, 24" tall, very 
large flowered, and in contrast 
Bouton d’or, rich, deep yellow, 
short, round flower. Picotee, al- 
so called Maiden Blush or Ida, 
white-edged pink. Very popular 
of late years, have become the 
Darwin Tulips, extra strong grow- 
ing and late flowering. Try a few 
of the following and in another 
year you will want to plant more : 
Pride of Harlem, old rose, Mme. 
Krelage, violet rose, Painted 
Lady, cream white tinted laven- 
der, Philippi de Commines, dark 
purple. Glow, bright scarlet. 
Do you know the Parrot Tulip? 
If not, get a few in a mixture and 
you'll stand amazed beholding the 
large, deeply fringed flowers in 
variegated bright red and yellow 
colors. 
All of the aforementioned bulbs 
are perfectly hardy and need no 
winter protection unless the 
planting should be delayed until 
the ground freezes hard, in which 
case protect the earth from freez- 
ing before planting and after 
planting if soil be dry give good 
watering, then cover good with 
dry leaves which, however, must 
be removed very early in spring 
and before growth appears above 
ground, otherwise the tender 
leaves are easily injured by frost. 
Early planting, of course, is al- 
ways preferable and all bulbs will 
