sponsible for the reputations we have established in this country 
and in Holland as the acknowledged leader in the distribution of 
Cream Quality bulbs and the marketing of the finer varieties. 
All the bulbs we send out are the top size of the season’s crop. 
Our growers reserve for us their choicest stocks, many of them 
being obtainable only in limited quantities. For this reason we must 
place our orders with our growers early, and our orders are generally 
mailed abroad during the last week in June. 
Furthermore, a Cream Quality list nowadays bears little resem¬ 
blance to any of the lists of a dozen years ago, for the improvement 
in all classes of bulbs has been so marked that a great many of the 
older favorities are unworthy of a place in the modern garden. This 
Blue Book retains only the cream of the older kinds, and adds the 
best of the newer sorts. In making selections from our list, then, 
there is no chance of being misled by attractive color descriptions 
into choosing varieties of which the growers have large stocks, and 
which are in demand solely because of their low price, without 
regard to quality. Many of the varieties we offer are our exclusive 
introductions, and will not be found in other American or foreign 
catalogues. 
An additional advantage our list possesses is that, as we import 
our bulbs only to order and carry no large stocks, we are able to 
offer a far wider range of varieties than if we had to assume the 
risk of bulbs remaining unsold at the end of the season. 
Our unvarying policy of shipping no orders in original packages 
as they arrive from Holland and of -examining and repacking every 
bag of bulbs, ensures our customers the satisfaction of planting 
bulbs that are ready to root at once and so make the necessary 
growth before freezing weather sets in. 
The descriptions of varieties in The Blue Book will be found 
unusually elaborate in their detail; in every case they have been 
taken from flowers actually grown in our trials, except where it is 
stated that we give the growers’ descriptions. As the subject-matter 
and the descriptions contained in The Blue Book have been used 
in other catalogues, attention is called to the fact that the contents 
are protected by copyright, and that the use of any part of the 
same constitutes an infringement thereof. 
In all lists, the figures following the variety names indicate the 
relative time of flowering of any given variety as compared with 
others in the same class. Of the Tulips the Single Early varieties 
are the first to bloom, followed closely by the Double and Triumph 
Tulips. Generally speaking, the Cottage, New Hybrid and Lily- 
Flowered Tulips come into flower next, and the earlier Darwins 
and Breeders along with them; while the Bybloems, Bizarres and 
Parrots are in flower together with the later Darwins and Breeders. 
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