166 
tiie amateur's flower garden. 
bulb, and it not only need not be lost, bnt will be sure to 
increase yearly with the most trifling exercise of care and 
judgment on the part of the cultivator. Any ordinary good 
soil -will grow tulips well, but the best possible soil for them 
is a well-drained, very rich and mellow r sandy loam. Partial 
shade they bear well; indeed, it is the custom to put an 
awning over a bed of named late tulips, both to prolong the 
beauty of the flowers, preserve their true colours, and 
enhance the enjoyment of inspection, for a good bed of tulips 
is an exhibition in itself. For ordinary purposes, all the several 
classes and sorts of tulips may be treated in the same man¬ 
ner, and they will all flower superbly, and increase rapidly, 
and maintain their quality, though the circumstances they are 
subject to may not be such as a tulip-fancier would approve. 
Indeed, for the parterre and the mixed border no one needs 
expensive kinds; at the same time, those who have first 
acquired some experience in the management of the cheapest 
will be w T ell prepared to plunge into the tulip fancy, if so 
minded, and they might do worse. 
The early tulips are the most useful for massing, because 
tney may be taken up in time to make the beds ready for 
geraniums and other summer bedders. They should be planted 
in October, four inches deep and six inches apart, and be 
taken up as soon as their leaves begin to wither, at the end 
of May. It is not necessary to wait until the leaves have 
quite died down ; if they are but half dead, the bulbs may be 
lifted and laid aside, with a thin covering of earth, for a week, 
to ripen for storing. The late, or exhibition tulips, should 
be planted in November, and taken up in June, when the 
leaves begin to die down. It is no easy matter to kill tulips. 
We remember sending a valuable collection to the other side 
of the world, some twenty-five years ago. They were delayed 
in transit, and our calculations were upset. The result was, 
that nearly a year elapsed from the time they were taken up 
in England to the planting of the roots in the colony. Then 
when the boxes were opened, it was found that the bulbs had 
shrivelled away to dust, but every one had. formed a cluster 
of tiny offsets to take its place, and from these offsets our 
friend soon obtained stocks of the several varieties that were sent 
out to him. In the autumn of 1869 we were so much occupied 
with big work, that the planting of our tulips was deferred, 
and deferred, until at last the 2nd of April, 1870, arrived, and 
