f he Uses of Bulbs for the Home Garden 
The use of bulbs in gardens is as old as the history of gardens 
themselves. Even the origin of cultivated or horticultural types— 
developed by the improvement and the crossing or hybridizing of 
wild species—is so ancient that, in the case of many of them, it is 
lost in the dim past. Many bulbs, nevertheless, differ from most 
garden flowers in that the original forms or species are so desirable 
that they are still widely used. 
The growing popularity of the wild or species tulips js an 
interesting illustration of this fact. During the time of the “tulip 
mania” in Holland, in the 17th Century (when new horticultural 
varieties of tulips were literally worth more than their weight in 
gold or gems, and “shares” in a single bulb were traded in) and 
for generations later, the species were almost unknown in gardens. 
For the past decade or two the demand for them has been so great 
that until auite recently stocks were unavailable even at very high 
prices. Now, fortunately, most of them can be obtained at 
moderate cost. 
Consider the Lilies 
The hardy lilies are outstanding among all garden flowers as 
having been so perfect in their original forms that until quite 
recently little or no attempt to improve them was made. The 
hybridizers apparently thought that figuratively, as well as literally, 
there was little to be gained by “gilding the lily”. 
Now improvements and hybrid varieties are being introduced. 
Fortunately, too, the commercial culture of lily bulbs in this 
country is making great headway. This has two advantages for 
American gardeners: less delay in getting the bulbs, so they can 
be planted earlier than when we had to await their arrival from 
Japan or Europe,- and less likelihood of drying out or of mechanical 
injury, resulting later on in disease or decay. 
Advantages of Gardening with Bulbs 
It is little wonder that the bulbous flowers have been popular 
since the very beginning of gardening. No other type of plant 
offers the planter quite so many advantages in combination. 
First of all there is the assurance that every bulb will give a 
flower. The commercial grower who produced the bulb has 
nursed it through all its early stages, and it comes to the gardener 
almost a finished product, about as nearly fool-proof as any living 
thing can be. 
So completely has the bulb grower done his job that in the 
case of most spring flowering species the complete flower— 
petals, stamens and pistils, and stem—has already developed at 
the heart of the bulb before the gardener puts it into the ground! 
If a tulip, daffodil or hyacinth is cut in two vertically, this tiny 
flower can readily be seen, or, in fact, picked out of the bulb. 
That is why the planting of bulbs is about the surest of all 
garden bets. It is why even a child can grow bulbs indoors 
and achieve success! 
Bulbs Give Quick Results 
And in bulb gardening there is no long delay before you begin 
to get results. Their culture is free from the bane of the gardener’s 
existence, the “three W’s”—waiting, watching and weeding— 
before you receive the first dividends from your investment. 
Some of the fall-flowering^bulbs, in fact, flower almost before 
you can say Jack Robinson.” So impatient are they to achieve 
their aim in life that they will produce flowers if laid away on a 
shelf and forgotten! 
If you have never tried any of the Autumn flowering crocuses, 
or the still more precocious and impatient colchicums, be sure to 
order a few so that you may become acquainted with these charm¬ 
ing little beauties that give such a “lift” to the late summer garden. 
But if you want them, order early. (Bulbs of either Autumn 
crocus or colchicum that have bloomed indoors, however, can 
later be planted out, as they do not pr-duce their foliage until 
spring, and so will be ready to give another crop of bloom next 
autumn.) 
Beauty from Bulbs the Year 'Round 
Still another great advantage of gardening with bulbs and 
bulbous or tuberous-rooted plants is that you can enjoy their 
beauty around the circle of the year. Even with the hardy bulbs 
alone—the only type we are discussing here—you can enjoy 
in your winter windows or enclosed porch or sunroom, a constant 
succession of many of the same beauties that will bring a rush of 
joyous color back to the outdoor garden, 
“When the hounds of Spring are on Winter’s traces, 
And the Mother of months, o’er hill and plain, 
Fills all the hollows and windy places 
With I isp of leaves and ripple of rain.” 
From the Christmas holidays on, pots of daffodils, hyacinths, 
tulips, crocuses, and a dozen more of the smaller, but no less 
lovely “minor” bulbs—grape hyacinths, snowdrops, lily-of-the- 
valley, and above all the dainty, graceful and altogether charming 
chionodoxa or glory-of-the-snow. Many of these little fellows 
are more or less lost when planted in open borders. Not until 
you get an “eye-level,” close-up acquaintance with them, on 
window-sill or table, will you fully appreciate their full beauty. 
A constant succession of these “forced” bulbs can be enjoyed 
from mid-winter until the spring blooms begin in the open. Then 
the grand parade of “minor” bulbs, species tulips and daffodils 
(most of which flower earlier than the garden sorts), “daffies,” 
tulips, bleeding-heart, mertensia and others carries on until the 
earliest hardy lilies catch up the banner of bulb beauty and hold 
it aloft through mid-summer and into autumn. Then come the 
Autumn crocuses and colchicums. 
Types of Bulbs and Their Uses 
Getting the fullest enjoyment from one’s planting of bulbs is 
dependent to a great degree on selecting “the right thing for the 
right place.” This is especially true if the bulbs are to be really 
fitted into the garden picture, to become a part of it, and not 
merely grown for their own individual beauty. 
And what a varied palette of gay and glowing colors the family 
of bulbs offers to the home gardener who would develop to 
their maximum beauty his beds and borders! Dreary indeed would 
be the early spring garden that wholly lacked the cheerful note 
of flowers from bulbs. 
Bluebirds of the Floral World 
First of all, in our discussion of the spring bulbs, let’s talk 
about the little fellows. First, because in the catalogues, they 
usually come last, being tucked away after pages and pages of 
tulips and daffodils with colored illustrations. 
These "little bulbs" belong in every garden, no matter how 
large or how small. The fact that they are comparatively neglected 
in the catalogues does not lessen their value to the gardener, as 
is proved by their rapidly increasing popularity in spite of, rather 
than because of, the mention they get in most bulb lists. 
Then, too, there are to be found among the little bulbs many 
of the very earliest flowering. Sci I la siberica, and chionodoxa, 
the glory-of-the-snow, for instance woo the nipping air of March 
(or sometimes February!) with their blooms of blue as vivid as any 
that the summer garden can boast. And the Winter Aconite 
(Eranthis hyeamalis) matches this with its Rowers of clear yellow. 
These, with the snowdrops and others, are earlier than the cro¬ 
cuses, which so many folks think of as the first harbingers of spring. 
Many of these little bulbs, when once established, not only 
last indefinitely but proceed to propagate themselves, forming 
spreading “colonies” in a happy way. Some, like the grape 
hyacinth, even seed themselves. 
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