April 18, 1908. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
269 
Barr's Special Bulb Plapter. 
A tool that will make openings in the 
grass for planting bulbs has long been 
a desideratum, but though Messrs. Barr 
and Sons, n, 12 and 13, King Street 
Covent Garden, London, early recognised 
this fact, it took some years to get an 
implement perfectly formed to carry out 
the work which they had in mind. Al¬ 
though they knew what they required, it 
was very difficult to get the workers in 
iron to understand what was meant and 
to make a useful article from plans, de¬ 
scriptions and instructions. They have 
now prepared an article which scarcely 
seems to admit of much further improve¬ 
ment. 
It is also simple, and consists of a short 
cup at the base sufficiently wide to cut a 
hole in turf to admit a bulb. The opera¬ 
tor holds a cross handle with both hands 
and with the right or left foot (whichever 
he chooses) he can push the cup into the 
ground* bringing out a little bit of turf 
with the soil attached to it. He then 
shifts his position to where he desires to 
plant another bulb and pushes the tool 
into the ground again. This second 
operation causes the first bit of turf to 
come out of the cup and fall on the 
ground. .By this simple process he pro¬ 
ceeds until he has made hundreds or per¬ 
haps thousands of holes. At the same 
time a boy follows up behind him with a 
bag or basket of bulbs and drops one into 
each hole. As he does so, he takes the 
THE “GRAND” 
Garden Roller, 
f + 
Every amateur who has a garden of any 
size or a lawn requires a roller. Whether 
this is large or small it always has its 
duties to perform, and is in frequent re¬ 
quisition just after rain, whether for roll¬ 
ing the lawn or the walks. During periods 
of drought in summer the gravel walks 
get broken up and the gravel rolling 
about makes very uncomfortable walking 
indeed. This is one of the chief reasons 
why people prefer to walk on the edges to 
trudging along walks where the gravel is 
rolling about. 
From year to year improvements con¬ 
tinue to be made in rollers suitable for 
garden purposes and for all sizes of gar¬ 
dens. The latest one put on the market 
by Mr. T- Attwood, heatine eneineer, 
Stourbridge, is named the “ Grand ” gar¬ 
den roller. This consists of two cylin- 
little bit of turf and puts it in the hole 
above the bulb. After the whole of the 
bulbs have been planted in this way the 
operator can get a turf beater and beat 
down the turf firmly, so that the operation 
is completed. 
In rough ground, where a machine is 
not used, the little bit of turf could be 
stamped in with the foot, and the opera¬ 
tion would be completed. The whole pro¬ 
cess is a very simple one, and saves a deal 
of labour in lifting turf, putting the 
ground to rights afterwards, and then re¬ 
laying the turf. With this bulb planter 
there is no lifting of turf beyond the 
little piece cut out by the tool. The 
accompanying illustration shows the 
simple design of this bulb planter, the 
cup being at the far end from the handle; 
the opening is not seen very clearly on the 
illustration. 
A proper time should be selected for 
planting Daffodils, Crocuses and other 
bulbs in the grass, and this is when the 
ground has become soft by the early 
autumn rains. If any attempt were made 
to plant before this, the operation would 
be hard work, and not very satisfactory 
when finished. Of course, after the 
ground has been softened by rains, plant¬ 
ing may then be continued right up to 
Christmas, though the earlier the bulbs 
are planted the better. When the ground 
is in suitable condition a large quantity 
of bulbs can be planted in a very short 
time, and without injury to the turf. The 
entire length of the tool is 38 in. and the 
weigh slightly over 3 lbs. The cup is 
made from high-class hardened steel, and 
therefore keeps a keen cutting edge. The 
cup is made in three sizes, namely, to cut 
the circular hole 2 in., 25 in. and 2F in. 
in diameter. Probably few bulbs in grass 
would require the last named size, ex¬ 
cept Hyacinths. 
ders which may puzzle the amateur as to 
its use. Rollers of any particular length 
are heavy articles to turn and require a 
deal of space. When the roller is in two 
pieces or cylinders it can be turned easily 
in a small amount of space. For instance, 
the half of the roller on the point where 
it is being turned would stand still, or 
nearly so, while the other half would, be 
moving much more rapidly. The neces¬ 
sity for turning in small space is of fre¬ 
quent occurrence in gardens where there 
The “Grand” Garden Roller. 
are beds on the grass and even where the 
machine has merely to be turned round 
and put on a fresh course so that all parts 
of the lawn may be regularly and evenly 
rolled. 
Another feature of this garden roller is 
that it has solid ends with rounded edges. 
It is also strongly constructed, well 
finished, and painted in colours, and de¬ 
livered carriage paid to any station in 
Great Britain. This particular type of 
roller is made in various sizes from 16 in. 
in diameter and length to 24 in. in diame¬ 
ter and length, so that anyone could be 
suited with a roller according to the size 
of his garden. The “ Grand ” roller has 
met with a considerable amount of ap¬ 
proval from the customers of the firm. 
-f+4-- 
HOW TO PLANT 
A Star Bed. 
This can be laid out on the grass by 
describing a circle the extreme width that 
the bed is intended to occupy. Then 
from the centre to the circumference will 
give the operator the length from point 
to point of the angles which will all meet 
in the circle. The distance is really one- 
sixth part of a circle. The dipping angle 
will be mid-way between two of the points 
on the circle. 
The centre may have an American Aloe 
A Star Bed. 
of suitable size, a Dracaena, Yucca or 
pyramidal Fuchsia, whichever the planter 
may have in store. The body of the 
bed can then be planted with Verbena 
Miss Willmott or any other variety in 
stock and pegged down to make it com¬ 
pletely cover the bed. Each of the tri¬ 
angles on the outer margin of the bed 
may be planted with other subjects to 
give variety. Two of the angles (opposite 
one another) may be filled with blue Lo¬ 
belias. Another two may be planted with 
white Lobelias and the remaining two with 
dwarf blue Ageratums. This will serve 
to give variety, and for contrast of col¬ 
our. the whole bed could be outlined with 
Golden Feather. 
