SPECIAL AND IMPORT PRICES FOR FALL OF 1910 
5 
Beilis perennis naturalized on the bank of a pond 
Flowers by the Ten Thousand 
The Easiest, Least Expensive and Most Artistic Way of Growing Myriads of Flowers 
By J. WILKINSON ELLIOTT 
T IIE most inspiring floricultural idea of the last quarter of a century is the naturalizing of flowers by the thousand in situations 
where they need absolutely no care after planting. It is the easiest kind of gardening, for there is no weeding, watering, 
hoeing, staking or tying. It is the most artistic form of gardening, because the flowers fit perfectly into the landscape. It 
is the most effective kind of gardening, because nothing can surpass in beauty a continuous sheet of flowers all of the same 
variety. (No matter how numerous they may be, these wildings never seem gaudy or vulgar.) And, finally, it is the least expen¬ 
sive way of getting hosts of flowers—flowers like the stars of the Milky Way in multitude. A thousand narcissus bulbs! The thought 
takes one’s breath away; yet a thousand bulbs of the poet’s narcissus cost only five dollars,—a mere nothing compared with the 
vision of loveliness which it makes possible. And the first cost is the only cost. Compare the frontispiece of this magazine with 
the pretentious “Italian” gardens of today, which cost a fortune to maintain and never fit into an American landscape. Which 
style do you prefer? The accompanying illustrations must be a revelation, even to the initiated, of the wonderful pictures that 
have already been created in America, by the wholesale naturalization of flowers in woods and meadows. 
Small city places do not offer many opportunities for naturalizing, but some of the spring flowers can be used in this way 
on the smallest lots. Snowdrops and Scilla Sibirica can be planted in the grass of the most closely shaven lawn; they are so dwarf 
and bloom so early that the bulbs ripen perfectly and will continue to bloom year after year. This is not true of crocuses, which 
are frequently planted on lawns. If the grass is mown, the crocuses must be replanted at least every two years. 
When small bulbs are planted on lawns, care must be taken to arrange them in natural-looking groups. Often I see crocuses 
scattered over the entire surface of a lawn a foot or two apart; the effect is extremely bad. In naturalizing bulbs or hardy plants, 
each variety should be held together in irregular-shaped groups, which should be closely planted in the center and more thinly 
as the margin is approached (see bluet picture). It is a good plan to scatter the bulbs over the surface of the ground before plant¬ 
ing any of them. I stand in the center of the proposed group, dropping some of the bulbs at my feet and throwing others out in 
every direction, planting them where they fall. Circular groups should be avoided. They may be made of almost any irregular 
shape but always longer than they are broad. The arrangement largely depends upon the situation; a bay or recess in the shrub¬ 
bery may be thickly and entirely filled with one variety of bulbs, a sloping bank may be a mass of narcissi or tulips, or an orchard 
in which the grass is not mown until after July first will afford opportunities for many groups and a succession of bloom for two 
months or more. 
The great advantage of using flowering bulbs in this way is that the plantings are permanent and need never be renewed but 
increase in size and beauty year after year, which is much more satisfactory than the present annual waste of millions of bulbs 
used for inartistic beds on the lawn. These bulbs are all destroyed, as they must be removed before they are ripened, in order to 
plant the undesirable bedding plants which follow them. It must be remembered that the foliage of bulbs must not be cut off be¬ 
fore it has ripened, but this does not prevent them from being planted in orchards and meadows, as the foliage is ripened by the 
time the grass is ready to cut for hay. 
The only tool we use in planting bulbs is a good, strong garden trowel, with which a hole is dug for each bulb. We cover spring- 
*Frora Country Life in America. Copyrighted, 1904, by Doubfeday, Page & Co. 
