Natural planting of crocuses, scilla and snowdrops 
A PHASE OF FALL GARDENING THAT COSTS BUT LITTLE LABOR AND TIME 
AND BRINGS BIG RESULTS—THE SORTS TO BUY AND HOW TO PLANT THEM 
W E hear a good deal these days about succession crops— 
follow-up crops in the vegetable garden and continuity 
of bloom in the flower garden. Very little attention, however, 
has been paid to obtaining a succession of bloom in the bulb gar¬ 
den. The spring-blooming bulbs are popular, but they would be 
much more so if more people realized that their season can, by 
proper selection, be extended from very early in the spring—much 
earlier than any of the perennials begin to bloom or than is safe 
to set out plants in flower from indoors—all through the spring 
and into early summer. In fact, their season may be extended 
practically throughout the summer if one includes the hardy lilies ; 
but these are not, of course, covered in the term “spring-flower¬ 
ing” bulbs, and, moreover, most of them recjuire treatment rather 
different from the latter. In describing how proper selection may 
prolong the flowering season in the bulb garden, I have given 
more consideration to the three most popular and important of 
the spring-blooming bulbs—tulips, narcissi and hyacinths. 
Aside from the fact that, as ordinarily planted, the flowering 
season of the spring bulbs is unfortunately short, almost every 
point that one can think of 
is in their favor; especially 
so for the use of the person 
whose garden time as well 
as garden space is limited. 
The culture is the easiest 
imaginable: buy good 
bulbs, plant them properly, 
give them a light winter 
mulching, remove it in the 
spring—and success is 
yours. The reason for this 
is that the buyer of a bulb 
is getting what is prac¬ 
tically a “finished product” ; 
all he has to do, so to 
speak, is to open the can 
and warm the contents, and 
it is ready for use. With 
a seed or a plant or even a 
shrub, however, he has got 
to do some real gardening. 
And the reason lies in the 
fact that the industrious 
Hollander or 
Frenchman or Jap 
who grew the bulb 
has done the real 
work with it; the 
flower is contained 
inside, literally a 
perfect miniature al¬ 
ready formed, need¬ 
ing only the proper 
application of the 
sufficient degree of moisture and heat and sunshine to swell it to 
its mature proportions and to tint it to the most delicate or daz¬ 
zling of colors. That is why, for example, you can grow a lily 
bulb in pebbles and plain water. For the amateur, success with 
the spring flowering bulbs is more certain than any other class 
of flowers. As already stated, their culture is the simplest; fur¬ 
thermore, they are practically free from insect pests and diseases, 
more so than any other class, not even excepting shrubs; finally 
they escape that greatest of 
Divide narcissi bulbs before planting 
garden 
plagues — the 
After the snowdrops and scilla come the crocuses. These scatter-planted here are year-old 
seedlings. Note the hair-like leaves of the young plants 
mid-summer drought. When 
your other choice flowers 
are drying up or necessitat¬ 
ing the daily use of the 
hose and the constant main¬ 
tenance of a dust mulch, 
your bulbs are lying dry 
and dormant, “resting up” 
for the autumnal root 
growth and the spring flow¬ 
ering period, at both of 
which seasons moisture is 
usually abundant. Nor is 
their cost excessive: the 
most beautiful of the nar¬ 
cissi for plant in mass or 
naturaling can be purchased 
for from half a cent to a 
cent and a half apiece. 
Nor, again, is the fact that 
their cheery blossoms come 
at a season when practically 
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