556 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 20,1894. 
connected with a tracing of well coloured Berberis leaves, and 
dotted at irregular intervals with flowers, a few Fern fronds being 
also employed. The little patches of white cloth showing between 
the tracing will prevent anything approaching heaviness in the 
appearance of the design as a whole. 
After a series of parties it is always a good plan to have, if 
possible, something entirely distinct to finish with. Such a 
feature may be secured by using pink and white Primulas in 
conjunction with long sprays of Epacris of similar colours. In this 
instance employ Smilax freely. Trail this upon the cloth in an 
informal way, without any apparently studied design ; place upon 
it little groups of Primula pips here and there. Let miniature 
glasses with from three to five sprays of Epacris rise from the 
greenery at points where taste may suggest, in all instances 
covering the glasses with Smilax. It may in some cases be 
advisable to use a few trumpet-shaped glasses as well ; but these 
ought to be of very slim build, so as to enable the decorator to 
secure a triumph of characteristic lightness in arrangement, and 
a fresh pleasing combination of delicate tints in colouring. 
—D. H. W. 
THE FLORISTS’ TULIP. 
[By James W. Bentley, Hon. Secretary to the Eoyal National Tulip Society.] 
Chapter IV. 
(^Continued from j)age 514.) 
There is often much difficulty in obtaining such soil as I have 
-described, and to many cultivators ‘•the top spit of a fat old 
pasture” is practically unattainable. Fortunately there is no need 
to despair even if this be the case, as any heavy garden soil will 
grow the Tulip for one year at least. Soil that has been manured 
the year before and cropped with Potatoes, Turnips, or other 
■vegetables is suitable, and in most gardens can be readily obtained. 
It is undoubtedly better to change the soil, or a portion of it, every 
year, yet I have seen a fine bed of Tulips that had been grown in 
the same soil for eight years. It was ordinary heavy garden mould, 
about 2 feet deep, and the grower (who was that fine old judge and 
florist, the late Mr. Thos. Leech of Hooley Hill, Lancashire) had 
for years buried his garden weeds, as soon as the bulbs were lifted, 
deep in his bed. These decaying, had year by year given to the 
soil an enrichment of vegetable manure, which had evidently suited 
the bulbs and plants, for both were fine and healthy. If the same 
soil is to be used again, it is an advantage to give the bed a light 
dressing of lime during the summer; this, when the bed is turned 
over, will become thoroughly mixed with the soil, and prove 
helpful. 
I must in fairness mention that some growers do not share my 
aversion to nitrogenous manures, but use them freely. I believe, 
however, that what manure is used is of the “ well rotted ” or 
rendered harmless kind. I am not prepared to say that manure 
is altogether out of place in the culture of the Tulip, and have no 
doubt that, carefully used and in the right condition, it is of some 
benefit to some growers. At the same time it must be used with 
great caution, and the beginner had better avoid it. But “ there 
were brave men before Agamemnon,” and the Tulip growers of 
the past have left us much valuable information embalmed in the 
pages of the old fl iricultural journals. I extract the following 
from an article in the “ Floricultural Cabinet ” for 1850 by a 
grower who writes under the nom deplume of “ Dahl ” :— 
‘‘ Experiments with Tulips are rather dangerous, and I would not 
advise a beginner to try them. If he has a few hundred bulbs more 
than he wants, and does not value them, then let him experiment to his 
heart s delight, and not rep ne if he loses them all. I knew an extensive 
grower in the vicinity of London some thirty years ago who thought if 
he well Bupp ied them with dung he should do better ; the consequence 
was he nearly lost all. I knew an amateur about twelve years since 
who had more money than wit and a small smattering of chemistry, and 
every year he must needs make experiments, and to my knowledge he 
lost £100 worth for several years, till at last he got tired, and was 
satisfied to proceed in the usual routine. I have tried several myself, 
but will only relate what has proved useful. ’ 
“ Some years since I had the earth removed to the depth of 14 inches 
from my Tulip bed, in order to mix a little fresh mould with that taken 
out; at the same time I had a man to dig a hole in the garden. When 
he had got down about 3 feet he came and told me that six years before 
he had put some nightsoil in the same place ; he had just come to it, 
and it was rare stuff, and would advise me to let him put it aside, as 
it was rare manure for anything. A thought struck me that if it was 
good for everything it was good for Tulips. It was a dangerous thought, • 
at least 1 thought so at the time, but I was determined to try it. I 
had 4 inches of it laid at the bottom of the bed, and incorporated with 
it some sifted old mortar rubbish, had the mould put upon it, and 
planted my bulbs, and at the next blooming season I had the finest 
bloom I had ever had before, or have had since, and the reason I have 
never tried it again is, I have never had the good old stuff to do it with. 
Since I have resided in Manchester, where good compost for Tulips 
is difficult to procure, I have been forced to make experiments or procure 
mould from a distance. I have freely used liquid manure. A^ter the 
bulbs are taken up I lay the bed up in ridges, and every morning for 
two months the liquid manure is poured over the bed from the rose of a 
waterpot. Its beneficial effects are far more extensive than I ever 
anticipated ; indeed, I should use it every year if I was surrounded with 
mould the most congenial for their cultivation, feeling assured that it 
is conducive to their well doing. 
“ I have heard some cultivators affirm that the mould of the Tulip 
bed should be changed every year, saying that Tulips could never be 
grown well if it was neglected, and when I first began growing Tulips I 
adhered to this rule ; but after, found the change was for the worse, 
which confirmed the old adage ‘ Out of the frying pan into the fire.’ I 
was told some time since by an old, extensive, and good cultivator in 
the west of England that he had not changed the mould of his Tulip 
beds for twenty years. His garden ground was what was usually termed 
stiff ; and every year after his bulbs were taken up he covered his beds 
with a coating of fresh cowdung, which in the course of the summer was 
well incorporated with his stiff soil, and from my own knowledge he 
never had to find fault with his blooms.” 
This, from the pen of gossipy old “ Dahl,” is well worth pre¬ 
serving, and may be especially helpful to those who are forced to 
use the same soil year after year. Its moral, I think, is that 
nitrogenous manures must be of some age and have lost all their 
heating power when used, and they must be well incorporated 
with the soil some time before the bulbs are planted ; at the same 
time the vegetable manure mentioned before, as being used by 
Mr. Leech, is probably of quite as much value and is well worth a 
trial. 
The bulbs being planted, it is necessary to arrange the best 
means of protecting it. Surrounding the beds with galvanised 
wire netting about 2 feet high will keep off cats, and it should be 
protected in this manner immediately. Some growers after 
planting leave the beds exposed to all the weather until the foliage 
is out of the ground. I do not approve of this plan, as although 
frost will not hurt the bulbs even if the bed be frozen hard a foot 
deep, wet is prejudicial both to the quality of the future bloom 
and to the health of the bulbs, and is better kept off. In my 
opinion too much wet in the winter and spring is often the cause 
of coarse characterless blooms. The bulbs appear to get gorged 
and glutted with moisture, and in this condition naturally produce 
blooms in which brilliancy and clearness of marking are replaced 
by a dull, undecided flushing. Porous soil and good drainage are 
mitigating circumstances certainly ; but there can be no advantage 
in subjecting the Tulip, which is exotic in its origin, to the deluge 
of rain which often constitutes our English winter. Besides 
the injury to the quality of the flowers caused by too much 
moisture in the soil, there is often injury to the bulbs of a very 
serious nature. In the columns of the “ Midland Florist ” for 
1857 there was a discussion about the great loss of bulbs that many 
growers, notably Mr. Hepworth, had sustained, and one article 
bears so notably on this part of the subject that I must make an 
extract from it. It is by Mr. John Cunninghame, a well known 
florist hailing from the other side of the Tweed. 
“ No doubt bulbous roots, especially Tulips, when planted under such 
unfavourable circumstances as detailed, are subject to dropsy. Any 
person who has studied the culture of plants must be aware that when 
the atmosphere is surcharged with moisture, or too much water is 
applied to the roots of plants, it produces an excess of their juices, which 
resembles the dropsy of animals. This dropsy occurs chiefly in bulbous 
and tuberous plants, such as the Ranunculus, which is often found much 
swollen after rain, and this I most tenaciously hold was the cause of the 
death of Mr. Hepworth’s bulbs. Planted in soaking muddy soil, heavy 
rains after planting, no protection afforded until the roots had taken 
possession of the soil, not even during the whole winter, the consequence 
was the heavy rains battered the soil, and made it as close as a plastered 
wall, the frost congealed the water round the bulbs, no air could pene¬ 
trate, and of course neither seeds nor bulbs will germinate or make roots 
in such a state.” 
Mr. Cunninghame kept the winter rain off his beds by erecting 
a fra nework, roofed with thin yellow oiled waterproof cloth, and 
he goes on to say that the plan answered admirably. The old 
London growers did not particularly protect their beds from rain. 
The following from the pen of the famous Mr. Groom of Clapham 
Rise, which was published in the “Florist” for March, 1848, gives 
an idea of the protective means employed in his day. 
“ The operations for this month (March) are entirely of a protective 
character, but are, nevertheless, quite as important to insure a fine bed 
