8 
Ot)e Slower (Brower 
January, 1918 
Tulip Growing in America. 
[ Continued from first page. ] 
pirations should be literally nipped in 
the bud. When Tulips are grown for 
display in parks and private grounds, 
they are often lifted from the soil as 
soon as they have done blooming, but 
this practice cannot be followed with 
bulbs designed for flowering the next 
year. They must not be disturbed un- 
til the foliage has withered. Bulbs 
that have reached a good flowering 
size commonly make from two to a 
dozen new bulbs each season there- 
after, if allowed to complete their nat- 
ural growth. Two or three of these 
bulbs will usually equal the original 
bulb in size and will give flowers as 
good another year. If one desires the 
best flowers it is necessary to lift, sort 
and replant the bulbs at least every 
other year. If left undisturbed for a 
longer time the crowd of small bulbs 
will cause the flowers to decrease in 
size. When dug the smaller bulbs may 
be removed and planted as indicated. 
The different varieties of Tulips differ 
greatly in respect to the number of 
small bulbs produced. Some, as has 
been noted, produce two or three 
salable bulbs as well as several smaller 
ones, while others produce only a single 
large bulb with others much smaller. 
Tulips are also easily grown from 
seed. In such cases the seeds should 
be sowed as soon as ripe in light soil 
in a cold frame. They are said to make 
bulbs of considerable size the first 
season, but more information on this 
subject seems desirable. Since the 
bulblets produced by the mother plant 
are essentially all parts of the original 
bulb they will give flowers like the 
parent, though now and then a bulb 
sport may originate. The best chance 
of getting new varieties, however, is 
by hybridizing and the growing of 
new plants from the seeds produced. 
Tulip bulbs are very hardy and will 
endure the frost and cold of winter 
without protection of any kind, but it 
is better to give them a good mulch of 
leaves, straw or old manure as soon as 
the weather becomes cold. If leaves 
are used as a mulch, they may be left 
on the beds in spring and the young 
shoots assisted in growing up through 
them. In this way weeds are kept 
down and the moisture held in the 
soil. When the bed is to be prepared 
for a new crop, the leaves, of course, 
will be turned under. If one follows 
the Tulips with a quick-growing vege- 
table crop, he may secure two crops, 
one of vegetables and one of flowers, 
from the same land. 
The most attractive race of Tulips, 
and the one that seems to have re- 
ceived the most attention from growers 
in this country is that which includes 
the so-called May-flowering and Darwin 
Tulips. These blooms are so much 
superior to those of the early Tulips 
that they are likely to become increas- 
ingly popular. As bulb growers re- 
gard them at present, the Darwin 
Tulips vary in color from nearly white 
to the deepest red, maroon and lilac. 
They exhibit no shades of yellow, and 
are decidedly weak in the matter of 
white flowers. There are plenty of yel- 
lows and whites in allied groups, how- 
ever, and there seems to be no reason 
why we should not have good flowers of 
these colors to match the other shades 
of Darwin Tulips. One of the most 
fruitful sources of new varieties is 
found in changing plants from one 
locality to another. It is likely, there- 
fore, that when American breeders 
bring to bear their efforts on this 
class of bulbs we shall have advances 
comparable to what has occurred in 
the Carnation, Rose, Sweet Pea, and 
other well known flowers. In the 
writer’s grounds a number of desirable 
bulb sports have appeared and there 
are indications that others would de- 
velop if the subject were followed up 
carefully. 
A Beginner’s Gladi- 
olus Experience. 
[ W ritten expressly for ‘The Flower Grower. ] 
With last season’s Gladiolus garden 
a "delightful memory” and next sea- 
son’s yet a "prophetic dream,” the 
winter evenings give ample time to the 
Gladiolus grower-for-pleasure to ponder 
the experiences of the season just past 
and digest their lessons. To the writer, 
who has been a real Gladiolus "fan” 
for but two seasons, experiences were 
numerous and valuable. 
Introduced to the modern and mar- 
velous Gladiolus but three seasons ago 
by receiving a few really good corms 
as a premium to a little floral journal, 
we were led to purchase a goodly 
quantity of a fairly good mixture and 
a few of the more common named va- 
rieties. Their beautiful blooms resulted 
in an enthusiasm almost boundless and 
in the resolution that Gladioli should 
have a very large place in the next 
season’s garden. 
Fortunately at this time we were in- 
troduced to The Modern Gladiolus 
Grower, and its monthly visits greatly 
enjoyed. Advertisements of growers 
who offered stock were carefully read 
and selections of about twenty-five va- 
rieties were made and purchases made 
of advertisers patronizing this journal. 
We look back over the season past and 
cannot discover a disappointment in 
any one of these — all corms good and 
every one true to name. 
But, with other seed and plant cata- 
logs, came one from a prominent Illi- 
nois seedsman and it was a wonder. 
Every page bore the slogan, "Quality, 
Nothing but Quality !” and every seed 
and bulb was promised to be wonder- 
fully "Full of Life.” That catalog must 
have been prepared by a graduate from 
the school for circus poster writers. 
This page of Gladioli offered marvels 
as big as dinner plates and a number 
of the best known named varieties 
were offered at about half the retail 
price asked by Gladiolus growers in 
general. The bait was taken and we 
bought some of each of three kinds, 
Mrs. Frank Pendleton, Europa and 
Sulphur King. Such scrawny bulbs 
we never received from any reputable 
grower, but they were accepted, planted 
and carefully tended in the hope that 
blooming time would vindicate them 
Late in the season the so-called Mrs. 
Pendleton put forth some buds and 
when they opened, behold ! They were 
the variety known as Halley. Then 
Sulphur King put forth some flower 
spikes and behold, Halley bloomed 
again. Then, with the hope that this 
seedsman was at least 33g% honest, we 
waited for Europa to bloom but when 
it finally did she nodded to a row of 
Augusta blooming near and hailed them 
as sisters, for such they really were. 
Not a corm in the lot true to name and 
every one of a variety cheap upon the 
market. We had paid five times their 
market value and didn’t want them at 
any price. 
Thus we learned that The Flower 
Grower will, by its advertising col- 
umns, bring one in touch with the 
honest grower whose reputation is 
made by the quality of his stock and 
not by bombastic advertising and high 
sounding slogans which are but "sound- 
ing brass.” c. S. 
Preserve Poultry Manure. 
There is no natural manure produced 
on the farm as rich as poultry manure. 
Average mixed horse and cattle ma- 
nure carries 10 lbs. of nitrogen, 5 lbs. of 
phosphoric acid and 12 lbs. of potash per 
ton. Poultry manure contains in com- 
parison 32 lbs. of nitrogen, 35 lbs. of 
phosphoric acid and 18 lbs. of potash. 
Where ordinary farm manure has a 
fertilizer value of $1.50 per ton, poultry 
manure is worth $5 per ton. Even 
when produced in small amounts such 
material is well worthy of careful pres- 
ervation. 
Poultry manure should be allowed to 
dry as quickly as possible and be kept 
dry. In this condition it will lose but 
small amounts of its valuable constitu- 
ents. Like ordinary manure it fer- 
ments rapidly when moist and will lose 
thereby a large percentage of its nitro- 
gen, worth on the market 25c. or 30c. 
a pound. Since much of its potash, 
phosphoric acid and nitrogen is soluble, 
this manure may suffer greatly from 
leaching. Caustic lime should never 
be mixed directly with poultry manure 
as it encourages the chemical and 
biological actions spoken of above 
which liberate nitrogen as ammonia. 
Poultry manure is rich in nitrogen 
and low in phosphorus. These two 
conditions may be corrected by dilut- 
ing and reinforcing it as follows : To 
10 lbs. of the manure add 6 lbs. of saw- 
dust (or some similar dry material) 
and 4 lbs. of acid phosphate. This 
gives a fertilizer carrying 8 % of nitro- 
gen, 3.6% of phosphoric acid and .45% 
of potash or about the same proportion 
of plant food elements that are found 
in a 3-12-2 mixture, but only one-fourth 
as concentrated. — Florists’ Exchange. 
The suggestion made by Mr. Clute 
that Tulip growing in America can be 
made profitable should be of interest 
to bulb growers. Labor conditions are 
serious at the present time here, but 
we understand that the same is true 
of Holland. 
