422 
May 16,1895. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
even mediocrity in the study of either, and that probably at the 
expense of sacrificing more important—if less showy—subjects. 
Individual temperament must play a prominent part in bothy 
iaition. The most eager desire for knowledge if uncontrolled by 
wisdom is like a ship without a rudder. Rather keep to the high¬ 
ways and avoid the by-ways in your endeavour to reach the goal. 
Duty, according to circumstances or seasons, makes frequent calls 
on the leisure hour. These will be met with a cheerful response, 
and are reasons sufficient to clip ambitious projects, and confine 
them within reasonable bounds. Also bear in mind that one subject 
too many may prove the breakdown to all. 
Should you feel equal to attempting anything beyond our good 
old mother tongue, try your ’prentice hand at Latin, which is 
relevant to the science of botany and the art of gardening. I 
would more strongly press its claims on you, were it not for those 
seasons already adduced. However, a slight knowledge of the 
Latin tongue will serve to digest many of our hard-sounding plant 
names, and will then impress on you the desirability of being 
acquainted in some measure with it can you spare time for it. 
The vigorous and healthy tone imparted to the mind by exercise 
will probably enable you to be the best judge of future require¬ 
ments. The pole star of reason, rather than meteoric flights of 
fancy, will then light the road on which we part company. Yet. 
i am loth to leave you until your attention has been called to a 
very different subject, but a very important one—viz., habits. 
Hatsits. 
*■ As the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined.” 
Habits, good or bad, are the garments woven in youth which 
must perforce be worn through life’s journey to the grave. True, 
it is never too late to mend bad ones nor to cultivate good ones ; 
but a mended thing is but a poor thing at best, and the tear 
i^mains. The moral power if granted later on in life to amend, 
which I fear is seldom the case, is accompanied by remorse that a 
superficial view might endorse the proverb that “ It is better to 
Jive in a fool's paradise than in a wise man’s purgatory.” But this 
aspect of the case must not, cannot be tolerated by an educated 
mind. Our ideal of life must be a high one ; the very nature of 
our work and thought should make it so. There is not, I presume, 
a gardener in existence who does not, in each and every subject 
under his hand, endeavour to improve on his methods of culture 
as the seasons wax and wane. 
How much more should it be the constant endeavour to sow in 
the seed time of bothy life and to cultivate such things, such habits 
as may be harvested to advantage later on. The motive cannot 
be an entirely selfish one ; such must be in some measure shared 
by another rising generation. It is a question I would not enter 
into dogmatically. It is a question I am diffident of entering on 
at all ; but it is one of such high importance to you, my young 
brother of the craft, that I feel you should not be deprived of the 
smallest iota that my pen, though all too feebly, may be able to 
convey to you. Would that it could bring to you in letters of gold 
the blessings attendant on good habits, or show up in letters of fire 
the bitter fruits of bad ones. Experience is a dear school ; need 
you be of the class who will learn in no other ? 
From the extent of this subject, the varied phases of it, and 
the delicate handling many of them require, a more pretentious 
pen than mine might fail to do it justice. An outline weakly 
drawn is the most I can offer. You, and you alone, must fill it in, 
for who can fathom the mystery of the human heart ? To each, 
and to all of us, temptations come in varying shape and form ; 
some from within, others from without. Of the latter, should you 
have happily taken up in serious earnestness the course of bothy 
studies, some will be avoided. Others will, by the strengthening 
of mental vision, be seen by you in their true colours, whilst all 
will be brought to your notice by “ The still small voice.” You 
will do well to heed it. Intelligence can hardly fail to understand 
much that cannot be expressed ; yet some side lights bearing on 
your welfare now, and success hereafter, may escape notice.— 
4k Old Boy. 
(To be concluded.') 
GARDENERS’ TULIPS. 
I HAVE ventured to entitle the remarks that follow “ Gardeners’ 
Tulips” in order to distinguish them from the refined forms 
grown by Tulip fanciers, and which are beyond the reach of most 
gardeners. Those to which I wish to draw attention are cheap, 
and therefore may be cultivated in numbers ; easy of culture, 
consequently suited to all gardens ; exquisitely beautiful, and on 
that account indispensable. Species and varieties are numerous, 
and every one that I have flowered has possessed good qualities 
that has rendered it desirable to grow. A fairly good collection 
therefore affords very much pleasure. 
Like the beauty of Poppies, that of Tulips is erroneously 
thought to be evanescent. In our northern climate, at least, the 
flowers are quite as lasting as those of Daffodils or Irises ; and 
filling, as they do, the void betwixt all but the late kinds of the 
former, and the earliest of the sumnaer flowering Irises, they have 
among garden bulbs a distinct position of their own. Moreover, 
where the early single and double Tulips are forced, as well as 
grown out of doors, their season extends to quite six months. I 
began last November with Due Yan Thols, and it will be nearljq 
if not quite, the end of June before the latest will be past. Out of 
doors last year, for instance, the season extended to four rnonths ; 
this year it will be shorter, as spring was quite three weeks later in 
coming. , . . r • n c 
The cultivation of Tulips presents no difficulties. A friend or 
mine grew them for years most successfully on a clay of so strong 
a nature that the garden walls were constructed of bricks tnaniuac- 
tured out of the garden soil. Tulipa sylvestris grows wild here 
and flowers annually, growing in a wet clay. Going to the other 
extreme, I have another friend whose garden is a bit of rock hidden 
by a thin layer of soil, and here also Tulips succeed.^ In oim own 
case the soil is light, some of it gravelly, but provided sufficient 
manurial aids are given they grow, flower, and increase. Parrot 
Tulips, for instance, during the many years I have grown them, 
have not once failed to bloom. The bulbs, however, must not be 
allowed to remain for too many years without being divided and 
transplanted. The ideal method no doubt would be to lift and 
replant every year, but it is impossible with other work pressing to 
do this, and a triennial overhaul will meet their requirements.^ 
bulbs may be lifted either when the foliage dies down or in the 
autumn. Unlike Daffodils they do not root when left in the 
ground, and early lifting is in consequence of less importanc^ 
Though I have planted them later I consider the first or second 
week in November as the latest limit for planting. The uncer¬ 
tainty of the weather at that season and the condition of Ae soil 
each point to the wisdom of not delaying planting longer than the 
time named. , a t 
Though Tulips are gorgeously beautiful as garden flowers, 1 
cultivate them primarily for cutting. In order to secure a 
season and also to find space for a large number, I have them 
planted between lines of Gooseberry bushes, underneath the 
branches of Apple trees, on north borders, and some in^ special 
beds. The value of the flowers for decorating apartments is great, 
while when cut no flower travels better. It is necessary, however, 
to select for this purpose unexpanded blooms. If a number is 
required for any special purpose, the flowers, if cut young,^ keep in 
the same condition for a week at least if laid out on paper in a cool 
room and kept moist. A sheet of paper laid over them obviates 
the necessity of applying water oftener than once in three or four 
days. The merit of this method consists in the buds remaining at 
exactly the same stage as when cut, whereas those placed with the 
ends of the stalks in water expand, though very slowly. When 
packing to send a distance the flowers are first tied in bunches, 
then each bunch is wrapped round tightly in a sheet of thin paper, 
and the whole laid closely together in shallow boxes or hampers. 
Some Tulips, though very pretty, are so dwarf that they are of 
no value as cut flowers. Of these one of the brightest is the 
narrow-leaved linifolia. The earliest to flower are elegans and 
retroflexa, the latter soft yellow in colour, and each of the 
segments curving backwards in the most charming manner. The 
other is bright crimson, with the flowers of much the same shape, 
but perhaps less graceful. A week or so later a number of sorts 
expand, and among them is elegans alba, a very pretty flower ; 
albiflora, cream coloured ; vitellina, a species with flowers of a 
sulphur shade mixed with green. Following these is aincena, a most 
charmingly coloured kind, whitish yellow flamed with carmine ; 
fulgens, intensely bright flowers on very tall stalks ; Golden Eagle, 
bright yellow and carmine ; Picotee, white with rosy edgings, and 
much like elegans alba. 
I'he Parrot Tulips, with their quaintly scalloped petals, 
curiously marked with many shades of green, red, and yellow, also 
flower with these, also the earlier of the breeder section and the 
show varieties. For cutting selections of the latter can be pur¬ 
chased very cheaply. Those called by the Dutch rose bybloemens 
are, I think, the prettiest of all. The ground colour in these is 
white, and the markings of all shades from rose to carmine. The 
breeders again are of much value, and are to be had in different 
hues. Among the latest to bloom there is none brighter or 
useful than the old Gesneriana. This increases so rapidly that 
the bulbs require to be lifted and divided every second year. 
Golden Crown is a very good yellow form ; but the finest, as also 
the latest yellow, is Bouton d’Or. The colour is deep and bright, 
and altogether few kinds are equal to this. Rosacea alba, billietins. 
