6 _ THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
*+ is, perhaps, best not to permit them to 
bloom the first season, directing all the 
strength to increasing the size of the bulb 
and getting it thoroughly established. 
With the teachings of experienced grow- 
ers the cultural requirements of lilies can 
be snmmerised very briefly. They require 
4 cool rooting medium, shade from strong 
Sunshine, and some means must be em- 
‘ployed to preserve the bulbs from injury 
whilst in the soil, either by reason of lack 
or from excess of moisture or great heat ; 
beyond this, the bulbs meet with enemies: 
that would uot be found in their native 
habits, and these must be looked after. 
Liliums already established in pots, and 
which ;have produced flowering plants 
during the past season, will now need 
seeing to. The stems have either died 
_ down or are withering, and not a few 
_ amateurs are in doubt as to the method 
to adopt in preserving the bulbs, An 
opinion appears to be widely prevalent 
that they should be shaken out of the soil, 
dried, and kept out of it until spring, 
_'Thatis not the best plan. The earth in 
the pots may get nearly dry, when the 
whole should be turned out of the pots, 
and the greater part remoycd from the 
roots that proceed from the base of the 
bulbs. The dry and dead roots should 
then be cut off, but not those that are 
fresh, stout, and fleshy in character 
These should be retained, and the bulbs 
placed in fresh soil. The stems, when 
they wither, should be cut off close to the 
_ top of the bulbs. In some cases, especially 
when dried bulbs are potted very late in 
the spring, other bulbs do not form large 
enough for producing flowering plants 
another year, and such as are prodnecing: 
in a small state may be potted in the. 
hope of: larger being produced in the 
summer for flowering during the subse 
quent season. The spring and summer 
treatment will be preferred to in due 
_ time. the object now being to describe the 
details of management in potting, and 
these, as will be seen, are so simple that 
no difficulty ought to be experienced in 
_ carrying them out, 
— lowers. 
Quapiont. 
_ The winter has had a great flowering of 
these bulbs all through November: of 
course, with the dry weather the quality 
__ 1s not quite up to the mark, but notwith- 
standing the almost total absence of rain 
_the flowers haye hardly been affected by 
_ thrips at all. 
fact that the plants have been frequently 
and thoroughly soaked with water in ad- 
dition to the foliage being sprayed with 
the hose. These bulbs are planted in 
_Tows about thirty feet long on a slight 
‘slope. and they are easily watered by 
throwing out a furrow eight inches or a 
_ | -foot from the row of bulbs; a furrow on 
_ each side of the row and then turning on 
This is attributed to the 
the hose at the top of the different 
furrows in succession, this gives the 
ground a good soaking (by which the 
Toses amongst which the Gladioli are 
planted have also profited considerably ) 
A rather interesting thing about the 
gladioli was what happened to the spar- 
rows: with the earliest blooms the 
®Parrows set to work teating a hole at the 
upper end of the tube’ of the flower in 
order to get at the honey in the nectary, 
by so doing tearing off one of the wings 
of the flower. To counteract this a little 
white arsenic, no more than would go on 
the point ofa penknife was put in the 
upper end of the tube, and after trying it 
Once or twice the sparrows gave up the 
business entirely. and for some weeks 
they have not touched any of the flowers. 
at all. 
_Darronizs. 
Many of these bulbs are completely at 
rast, and in such case they may be lifted 
and stored for a month or two before re-. 
planting. Growers will remember how a 
little later than this last year there came 
a little leter than this last year there came 
a little rain, with the result that very 
many of the incomparables and Hybrids 
and Poeticus put on rcot action, so that 
if the bulbs be dug at all, it is better that 
they should be under cover before any 
rain comé, unless indeed they are replan- 
ted immediately after digging, this the 
writer thinks is the best treatment for all } 
bicolors. 
Crinums. 
C powelli album is now in bloom, and 
is by many considered quite the best 
Crinum that we know, the flower is very 
pure white, with good expanse of the 
perianth, and carries its flour boldly. 
Other crinums will be coming on for | 
flowering directly, and these, according to 
their seasons of blooming can be watered 
Burzgs. 
Almost all bulbs like a liberal supply of 
water while growing and blooming, and 
the trouble is to know when to commence 
and when to leave off; watering re-ting 
bulbs will often kill them. so that unless 
the grower has noted.up his dates he had 
_ better leave watsring until he sees the 
plants start. Here it is wonderful the 
_ Tegularity with which things come on at 
the same time of the year, year after year 
little or no variation in the day, a day or 
two one way or the other and that’s about 
Hiprrastrums, 
These are pretty woll done flowering 
now, and seed has to be watched for, if it 
be desired to raise new bulbs or increase 
stock by seeds. At the present time these 
bulbs are just as well not watered, they 
have pretty fairly made theie growth for ; 
the season, aud may just as well be allowed 
to ripen, though the writer wonld haye 
preferred a good fall of rain in the end of 
October which would have kept the bulbs 
going on growing until Christmas time, 
still as they have been checked it would 
not improve matters by watering them. 
- become a watter of consideration 
. desirable to mark the bulbs 
December 15, 1906 
BELLADONNA, 
Brunsvigia, etc., are now 
foliage: these plants should now be lifteg 
dry until the end of January. The troub o 
where bulbs are grown ina mixed garden 
is thatit is almost impossible to avoid 
some of them getting water at the Wwron 
time, thus a Cactus Dahlia ig planted near 
a clump of Belladonnas, the Cactur Dahlia 
must be watered, the Belladonna does not 
‘waut any, now what is to he done, A 1 
friend of the writer suggested that anyone 
hav.ng a large garden should take Care to 
have ull bulbs by themselves, That is all 
very well but the finest patch of Daffodils 
in the world looks a bit blank from Noy 
to June, and again bulbs are very various 
in their seasons so that they would have 
to be sorted up according to their flower. _ 
ing times and planted uecordingly. Thug 
we have different sorts of Crinums flower- 
ing or blooming right on from September — 
into April, so it would not do for us to 
plant out all Crinums even in the same 
plantation. ys 
losing theip 
Sparaxis, Ixras, Freezias, pro, 
All these little bulbs have lost thera 
foliage or are getting rid of it as fast ag 
they can. There is a lot of seed this year, — 
and this may well be saved or may be ; 
allowed to sow itself in the grass. Seeq _ 
sown in the grass will not come up so fast — 
and, perhaps, a good deal of it may be 
smothered if the grass be heavy; but a 
lot of it will grow, and as there is » bivem 
lot of labour involved in planting 10,000 
separate bulbs in the grass, some of our 
growers do not hold with suving seed, but _ 
the writer's fancy would be rather to sea” 
what could be done in the way of evolu-- 
tion by saving seed. Again, where a 
large number of bulbs are Wanted for 
acclimatising in the grass the cost would 
hence — 
either 
eavin 
it is well to save one’s own seed, 
scattering it abour in the grass and | 
it to its fate, orplanting it in boxes and 
putting out the bulbs when large enough, — 
But in any system of seed saving it is 
while in 
flower so as to save the seed of 
best sorts Itis a very common thing to 
hear people talking about flowers sunning 
to one color, and undoubtedly they do 
and generally to the very worst represen 
tative that you have, the reason of it is, 
that the best flowers are those that are at 
oace picked, the inferior ones are left to 
reproduce themselves, then those suppl 
all the new bulbs that come up; on the 
other haud there ure very few of th 
better ones left, if any, and what there 
are seemed overpu wered .by the grea 
quantity of pollen which is left upon th 
tore numerous flowers of the inferio: 
sorts. " 
the very 
AUSTRALIAN GARDEEN 
Ss. Gd. Per Annum 
