30 
House & Garden 
comer adjacent to the 
house. The hedge 
should be small and 
closely clipped, and the 
bulbs equally spaced. 
Several plantings of 
bulbs are suggested in 
attractive color com¬ 
binations with appro¬ 
priate under-planting 
and succession of an¬ 
nuals. The hyacinths 
are very suitable used 
here, though sometimes 
considered too stiff for 
the garden. They are 
also the earliest bulbs 
of any size to flower. 
In order to make room 
for the annuals, it is 
best to remove the bulbs 
as soon as the petals 
have fallen. In this 
case the colors can 
readily be kept sepa¬ 
rate. If the little bulblets are removed they 
will last for a number of years. 
Another kind of bulb planting is that of 
naturalizing in colonies or drifts. Since their 
beauty consists in the massing of large quan¬ 
tities together, usually any mixture of kinds 
is to be avoided. In this case the bulbs are 
allowed to multiply undisturbed year after 
year. They succeed best where the grass is 
not too thick and is not cut too soon after the 
bulbs have bloomed. The cultivated soil 
around the base of shrubs or edges of wood¬ 
land in partial shade are good places. The 
large old trees of the English parks often 
shelter a perfect carpet of snowdrops, scillas, 
or wood hyacinths. Another delightful picture 
is to be seen near an old Cambridge house 
where hundreds of yellow daffodils spring up 
in the grass at the foot of the ghost-like gray 
trunks of some veteran beeches. 
As to Lilies 
The majority of bulbs are, so to speak, chil¬ 
dren of the spring, but lilies nod and beck the 
summer long. Some of them are expensive 
and die after a year or two, but the following 
are worthy of general use: 
Lilium elegans, deep orange red, sun or half 
shade, 2', June and July. 
Lilium candidum, madonna lily, fragrant, pure 
white, sun, 3'-5'. 
Lilium Hansoni, yellow, sun or shade, 3'-4', 
June and July. 
Lilium tigrinum, tiger lily, orange purple- 
spotted, sun or half shade, 2'-5', mid-July 
to September. 
Lilium speciosum, spotted Japanese lily, white, 
reflexed petals spotted crimson-pink, fra¬ 
grant, 2'-4', sun or shade, August-September. 
Unlike most lilies, the candidum does best 
in full sun. It is often used in combination 
with larkspur. One secret of success is to 
cover the bulb with but a scant 2" of soil. 
The intense color of elegans looks best with 
the white of syringas. The golden yellow of 
Hansoni is an addition to any picture. The 
tiger lily looks particularly well with the porce¬ 
lain blue of platycodons or early monkshood. 
The speciosum lilies are attractive in the gar¬ 
den with gypsophila or pink phlox but are 
particularly suited to rhododendron soil. 
The actual planting of bulbs is not a matter 
to be gone into hit-or-miss. Few if any of 
them can stand wet soil before their roots de¬ 
velop, so if the location is one with heavy soil 
it is advisable to bed each bulb in sand, mak¬ 
many may be planted as desired, using minimum distances as shown in table at end 
of this article. It is best to have but one kind of bulbs in each colony. Below is a list 
of bulbs which are adaptable to naturalizing in drifts. 
1. 8cilia Sibirica, Sibirian squill.$14.00 per M. 
*2. Chionodoxa Lucilae, glory of the snow, sky blue with white center. ... 12.00 “ *' 
3. (lalanthus nivalis, single-flowering snowdrop. 10.00 
4. Tulips 
Tulipa svivestris, the wild sweet-scented English tulip, medium¬ 
sized drooping yellow flower. 2 6.00 
Tulip, Retroflexa, light yellow, decorative urn-shaped flower with 
recurving petals . 30.00 
5. Narcissus 
Barri conspicuous, yellow, short orange cup. 12-0 0 \\ ! 
Poeticus, or pheasant's eye, white, reddish-orange cup. 12.00 
6. Muscari botryoides coeruleum, blue grape hyacinth. 8.00 
7. Scilla campanulata, wood hyacinth 
Alba, clear white.*.. 10.00 ‘ ‘ 
Rosea, lilac rose. 12.00 '! ” 
Coerulea, porcelain blue. 10.00 
Price 
. 7o ea. 
1.0 0 ea. 
.35 ea. 
PLANTS: 
1. Tsuga canadensis, American hemlock, evergreen to set otf bulbs 
9 plants, \Vi' high.: 
2. Persica amygdalus vulgaris alba plena, double white flowering 
peach for contrast. 1 pi., 5'-6'. 
3. Evonymus radicans var. vegetus, broad-leaved evergreen evonymus 
on fence as background. 18 pi., 4' apart 2 yr. 
4. Arabis alpina, white rock cress for contrast, 6", April-May. 
50 plants, 15" apart. 12.50 per C. 
BULBS: 
5. Large Trumpet Narcissus, large flowers, sturdy plants, cup as 
long or longer than the perianth. 
*3. Emperor, trumpet golden yellow, perianth deep primrose. 
3. Empress, trumpet rich golden yellow, perianth white... 
1. Golden Spur, deep golden yellow, broad perianth. 
2. Princeps maximus, trumpet deep yellow, perianth pale 
primrose ... 
2. Trumpet maximus, deep golden yellow fluted trumpet. . . 
3. Victoria, broad flat creamy white petals and bold yellow 
trumpet, frilled, very large. 
6. Medium Trumpet Narcissus, with cup shorter than the perianth. 
4. Barri conspicuous, broad yellow perianth, wide short 
cup edged with orange scarlet .. 
Incomparabilis, cup about % length of perianth. 
Autocrat, broad yellow perianth deeper yellow, expanding 
crown . 
Queen Bess, perianth pure white, large yellow cup. 
Stella, large white star-shaped flowers, bright yellow cup 
Leedsi, varieties having white perianth and pale cup. 
Minnie Hume, perianth white, cup lemon to white. 
Mrs. Langtry, perianth pure white, cup white, edged 
yellow, showy ... 
7. Poeticus narcissus. all with snowy white perianth and flattened 
crown colored scarlet or crimson. 
4. Poeticus, poet’s or pheasant's eye narcissus. 
4. Poeticus grandiflorus, very large variety. 
8. Poetaz hybrid narcissus, large hardy sort with three or four 
flowers on a stem, very fragrant. 
3. Aspasia. large white, yellow eye. 
3. Klondyke, yellow with deep golden eye. 
3. Irene, primrose with orange eye, 8 or 9 flowers on a stem 
9. Double-flowered narcissus. 
3. Alba plena odorata, double poet's or gardenia—flowered 
narcissus, pure white. 
3. Orange Phoenix, creamy white with orange center. 
3. Van Sion, old doublo yellow daffodil. 
10. Narcissus Jonquilla, double sweet-scented jonquil, smaller 
flowers than the others, narrow dark green grass-like leaves. 
Quite distinct . 
* Numbers before each variety refer to the relative time of bloom, 
in April and May and most of them prefer one-half shade. 
3. 
3. 
4. 
ing the planting hole somewhat deeper than is 
actually needed for the bulb itself and using 
the sand to fill up this difference. In very 
heavy soil the sand layer may be 3" deep, and 
it should extend up around the sides of the 
bulbs as well as beneath them. The roots 
will reach out through this protecting layer 
and reach the nourishing soil without as soon 
as the time for active growth arrives. 
Although it is true that bulbs will grow in 
almost any soil, it is also a fact that they will 
do better if the earth around them is properly 
enriched. One of the best fertilizers is well 
rotted manure, thoroughly dug into and incor¬ 
porated with the soil. Bone meal is also ex¬ 
cellent. Put a handful of it on the surface 
above each bulb, and let the rains carry it 
down gradually. The use of both bone meal 
and manure is seldom necessary, or even ad¬ 
visable. 
Planting Depths and Dates 
Bulbs should be planted about one and a 
half times their own depth. Their roots, next 
year, will need to be kept cool, and the best 
way to bring this condition about is to plant 
them well below the surface. Perhaps a need¬ 
less word of caution is to mention that the 
crowns of the bulbs must be uppermost. It is 
from the crowns that the leaves and flower 
stalks spring, and naturally these seek the 
shortest road to the sun and air above. 
Oddly enough, the earliest flowering bulbs 
should be planted latest. Being especially 
hardy, as one would expect from the fact of 
their early bloom, there is a strong possibility 
of their starting top growth in the fall if 
planted before the end of the warm, sunny 
weather of Indian summer, and this would be 
fatal to their success. Do not put in the very 
early spring bulbs, then, until you figure that 
real freezing weather can¬ 
not be more than four 
weeks away. As a mat¬ 
ter of fact, the majority of 
bulbs can be safely 
planted any time before 
the ground freezes up. 
All hardy bulbs should 
be mulched after the 
ground has really frozen 
up. Four to six inches of 
straw or dead leaves will 
be enough for this, if held 
in place by dead branches 
or widths of old poultry 
wire laid on top. The ob¬ 
ject of a mulch, which is 
nothing more or less than 
a protecting blanket, is not 
to keep the ground from 
freezing, but to keep it 
from thawing out and 
freezing up again. 
In conclusion, although 
the blossoms derived from 
bulbs, excepting perhaps 
lilies, might be termed 
evanescent, the intensity 
of their coloring, coupled 
with their soldierlike bear¬ 
ing, demands our interest 
and admiration. No ma¬ 
terial reward is expected 
in return for their care or 
culture. Nevertheless, 
flowers pay a good divi¬ 
dend on the investment, 
and the medium in which 
they pay never deterio¬ 
rates, never gets lost. 
What is a garden with¬ 
out iris—in variety, if 
possible? 
.50 
per 
doz. 
.50 
.40 
.30 
.50 
.50 
.20 
.40 
.30 
.20 
. 2 5 
.20 
.20 
.35 
.45 
1.50 
.70 
.20 
.30 
.50 
.40 
All bloom 
