40 Making a Bulb Garden 
they have turned brown and quite dried 
up. This is the signal of “ripening.” 
When the bulb is through with its foliage 
it dispenses with it; it cannot spare one 
bit of it a moment sooner. The leaves 
have their part in the work of storing 
away next summer’s flowers, quite as im- 
portant as that played by the roots, and 
without the cooperation of both, the work 
cannot be completed. It is for this rea- 
son that crocuses seldom last long when 
planted in the lawn, highly though some 
recommend them for such a position. 
The very early cutting which lawns de- 
mand does not give the crocus bulbs time 
to ripen, consequently their foliage is 
sacrificed before they are through with it, 
and gradually they starve and dwindle 
away. Snowdrops, squills and glory-of- 
the-snow, all three of which do ripen and 
shed their leaves before the lawn-mower 
makes its first round, are really the only 
bulbs which are suitable for free-hand 
sowing in close-shaven turf. 
