115 
PARK AMD CEMETERY 
In parks, bulbous plants can be used 
to great advantage, especially the har- 
bingers of spring. To the ordinary per- 
son the annual display of spring flower- 
ing bulbs in such places as the Boston 
Public Garden is pleasing, but the lover 
of nature wants to see them in a more 
natural condition. To get good effects 
and pleasing groups with those lovely 
plants one ought to be well acquainted 
with their habits, likes and dislikes, and 
success can only be attained by selecting 
types that will be likely to succeed 
where they are to be planted. 
Pleasing effects can be produced by 
naturalizing bulbs in the grass. When 
making plantations of this kind the 
main object should be to get as natural 
an effect as possible. Care should be 
taken not to plant the bulbs in straight 
lines, curves or circles. As most of the 
common bulbs are so cheap now they 
ought to be planted in large masses, the 
aim being to obtain color in such quan- 
tity as to prove effective when seen from 
a distance. When planting bulbs in the 
grass they ought to be put in places 
where the grass is not to be cut until 
the foliage of the plants has completed 
its season’s work. Some of the best 
kinds for naturalizing in the grass are 
Narcissus poeticus, poeticus ornatus, 
poeticus poetarum, Narcissus princeps 
and single Narcissus Von Sion, crocuses 
in different colors, Scilla sibirica, snow- 
drops and Tulipa sylvestris. 
For planting in amongst shrubbery and 
along the outer edges of shrubbery bor- 
ders and also in the herbaceous borders, 
the following bulbs are hardy and reli- 
able. The best of the species of tulips we 
have grown are clusiana, fulgens, Didi- 
eri Persica,praecox, oculis-solis, cornuta, 
sylvestris, gesneriana and Greigi is most 
beautiful of all the tulips. The Darwin 
tulips and parrot tulips are excellent. 
The best of the Narcissi are these: 
Barrii, conspicus, emperor, golden spur, 
maximus, rugilobus, Empress, hors- 
fieldi, princeps, cynosure, Sir Watkin, 
Stells, Duchess of Brabant, Leedsii, 
Burbidgei, trumpet major. There are 
many more varieties of Narcissi, but 
these are the best to plant amongst 
shrubbery or borders to give striking 
effects. 
Bulbocodium vernum, a beautiful lit- 
tle plant with flowers not unlike a cro- 
cus but of a violet blue color, one of the 
earliest plants to flower in spring, and 
as hardy as a crocus. The most reliable 
of the Fritillarias we have tried are im- 
perials, meleagris, tenella, ruthenica and 
obliqua. The best of the grape hya- 
cinths are Muscari botryoides, botry- 
oides alba, commutatum and comosum. 
In snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis and 
plicatus are the best. Glory of the snow, 
Chionoaoxa luciliae and its varities, 
gigantea and sardensis, are charming 
plants for early spring. The Camassia 
Fraseri is oerfectly hardy. 
The Erythroniums are exceedingly 
beautiful on the edges of rhododendron 
beds. The best kinds are Americanum 
album and the European species Dens 
Canis and its varieties. They are easy 
to grow and perfectly hardy. 
Many of the lilies grow exceeding 
well when planted amongst rhododen- 
drons. Superbum and canadense are 
very effective when grown this way. 
The Scillas are charming little bulbs 
for early spring and Scilla campanulata 
and its varieties which flower in May 
make pleasing effects. Puschkinia scil- 
lioides, Ornethogalum umbellatum and 
the spring snowflakes are all good early 
flowering bulbs. 
Robert Cameron. 
* * * 
We plant a few bulbs every year in 
beds near the conservatories for early 
display. These bulbs are allowed to re- 
main until about the last of May or the 
first of June, when they are dug and 
dried off, and stored away for planting 
in shrub borders or for naturalizing in 
meadow or woodland. 
We have several large beds where tu- 
lips and hyacinths and narcissi are al- 
lowed to remain year after year, or until 
they become too dense or uneven. 
In most of these beds the bulbs are 
followed by annuals, such as phlox, 
verbenas, etc. These can be planted 
without disturbing the bulbs and provide 
a shade for the bulbs which, in our cli- 
mate, seems to be absolutely necessary. 
Beds of tulips, Narcissi and hya- 
cinths usually remain in good condition, 
so treated, for four or five years, when 
they require thinning and replanting. 
Far more beautiful than the set beds 
of bulbs are the patches and masses of 
various species naturalized in grassy 
places or planted freely and without re- 
gard to varieties. Here the foliage of 
the surrounding plants makes a most 
agreeable background, and the result is 
wholly charming, without the glare and 
stiffness of the formal beds. 
A few thousand Narcissi planted on 
moist slopes near our lake, five years 
ago, have increased twenty-fold, and 
what was a single plant then is now a 
fine clump. In suitable situations and 
where the grass can be allowed to grow 
quite high before cutting these bulbs 
increase very fast and give abundant 
bloom. 
Scillas, crocus, snowdrops, Eranthis 
and grape hyacinths we also use to some 
extent in the lawns and grass borders, 
but they have to be renewed quite fre- 
quently wherever the grass is cut by the 
lawn mowers. In places where they can 
be left untouched until they ripen their 
foliage, the most of them will increase 
from year to year. Scillas, with us, in 
places where they are undisturbed, in- 
crease quite rapidly from self-sown seed. 
I sometimes think that bulbs are often 
planted too shallow. Tulips will come 
up through a foot of soil, and I think 
that eight inches is about as shallow as 
they should be planted. 
John F. Cowell. 
There is just one suggestion I wish 
to make in regard to discarded tulip 
and other bedding bulbs, two or three 
or even more years old — bulbs that 
would not be considered fit for bedding. 
In planting such bulbs about 6 inches 
deep along the edge of shrubberies they 
make an extremely pretty effect in the 
early spring, especially where they are 
planted along dwarf shrubbery, so that 
the flowers when they are out will pass 
through branchlets and possibly through 
very early foliage. 
It don't take long to plant them in the 
fall and they don’t need to be disturbed 
thereafter. When spading that shrub- 
bery a little bit of care of not spading 
too deep can be taken. They will be 
good for a few seasons, I think. At any 
rate they may just as well be made use 
of in that way as thrown away. 
Theodore Wirth. 
