214 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
October, 1914 
longest display of flowers, and this is only ac¬ 
complished by making your own collection for 
planting an informal bed or border, or by natur¬ 
alizing them, or, better still, by using both 
methods. 
To select and plan for a long season of bloom, 
first measure your bed or border and see how 
many bulbs of the required variety it will take 
to fill it. Hyacinths and the late flowering tulips 
should be set six to 
ten inches apart each 
way; the smaller 
earlier flowering tu¬ 
lips and Dutch Roman 
or miniature hya¬ 
cinths a little closer, 
say five to eight 
inches. The various 
narcissi should be put 
from six to twelve 
inches apart, depend¬ 
ing on variety and 
size of bulb, for full 
effect the first season. 
The narcissi, how¬ 
ever, multiply very 
rapidly. From a few 
dozen bulbs you can, 
in the course of three 
or four years, get 
enough to make fur¬ 
ther plantings or to fill 
in a good deal of 
space, if, in the first 
place, they are set 
rather far apart. 
Naturalizing is simply getting as natural an effect as possible. 
The simplest way is to get a sufficient number of the bulbs of 
the flowers you want, scatter them thinly broadcast, and plant 
where they fall. For this purpose, of course, only plants are 
used which are perfectly hardy 
and will increase themselves from 
year to year; therefore, perfectly 
satisfactory results can be had bv 
using bulbs that are not all of the 
first size. For instance, if you 
get a third of the quantity in first 
size bulbs and the rest in smaller, 
you will have a good show the 
first year after planting and plenty 
of other bulbs coming on for suc¬ 
ceeding years. 
Having then determined the 
number of bulbs you will require, 
there remains the problem of se¬ 
lecting those which will give the 
best satisfaction. 
I mention the tulips first, for 
they are at this time probably the 
most popular of all the spring 
flowering bulbs. There are three 
main classes or sections: the 
Early Flowering sorts, single or double; the May Flowering or 
Cottage Garden, and the Darwin type, which also flowers in May. 
The other classes that are not so important are the Paris or 
Dragon tulips, which are good, strong growers and are beauti¬ 
fully colored with fringed and grotesque shaped 
flowers, and the class known as the Breeder tu¬ 
lip, from which the Darwins have been selected 
and developed. In size, season of bloom, robust¬ 
ness of growth, etc., these are similar to the Dar¬ 
wins; the reason for their having dropped out of 
the public eye is doubtless that their dull, solid 
“self colors” were not popular for bedding effects. 
Some catalogues do not list them, but I can assure 
you that it will be 
very worth while for 
you to find one that 
does and to try out a 
few varieties. 
The time of flower¬ 
ing depends upon va¬ 
riety as well as type; 
therefore, for the 
longest flowering sea¬ 
son for tulips, pick 
from the earliest of 
the single and double 
early flowering sev¬ 
eral of the late and 
mediums of both the 
Cottage Garden and 
the Darwin types, and 
a few of the extra 
late of the latter. 
Of the narcissi 
there are also a num¬ 
ber of different types, 
all more or less con¬ 
fused under the 
names given them in 
the trade. The most 
important class is the Giant Trumpet narcissus. This includes 
such popular and splendid sorts as Emperor, Glory of Leiden, 
“the king of daffodils,” and the new giant flowered King Alfred, 
which attracted a great deal of attention at the New York flower 
show last spring. 
In addition is the Medium 
Trumpet class, which is listed un¬ 
der such various catalogue names 
as “Star,” “Crown,” “Chalice-cup” 
and “Peerless’ narcissi. This 
class includes Bcirrii Conspicuous, 
one of the most beautiful of all 
narcissi and especially valuable for 
cutting, and the several fine In- 
comparabilis and Leedsii varieties. 
The Polyanthus, “Cluster-flow¬ 
ered,” or “Nosegay” narcissi are 
different from the foregoing in 
that the flowers are borne in clus¬ 
ters and are also deservedly pop¬ 
ular on account of their pleasant 
fragrance. Paper White Grandi- 
florus, which is a favorite cut 
flower of the florists, and the 
“Chinese Sacred Lily,” which 
everyone has seen growing in 
bowls of water and pebbles, are the two best known of this class, 
but a number of the others are equally fragrant and beautiful 
and should be tried. This class is not as hardy as the others, but 
(Continued on page 244) 
All the varieties of narcissus require rather heavy 
soil and a partially shaded position, if that is 
possible 
Under the shadow of rhododendrons is an excellent spot for bulb planting, 
especially for narcissi 
The hyacinth, the third in the bulb succession. 
Above is shown several weeks of storage root- 
growth 
