THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
13D] GAWLER FL 
April 1, 1097 
ACE. 
r ADELAIDE 
wl 
New Petunia. 
—_ 
KING ALPHONSO. 
This fine new Petunia of the grandi- 
mys f : 
& flora superbissima class. bears very 
es 
large dark crimson flowers, like those 
of the variety Prince of Wurttemberg, 
but the petals of this novelty. are 
boldly waved and frilled to such an 
extent that the widely-opened brilliant 
black throat of the flower is almost 
entirely concealed, {As the opoosite 
electro shows, this new hybrid is of 
strikingly handsome appearance. 
A New Poppy. 
ADMIRAL. 
This single paeony-flowered Poppy is of 
surprising beauty. . Is is characterised by 
large round smooth-edged flowers of 
glistening pure white, with a broad band 
of brilliant scarled around the top, occu: 
pying a full quarter of the corolla, T 
two colours form an extremely te Ing 
contrast, similar to that seen in the 
variety Danebrog. Planted in groups this 
Poppy comes nearly true from seed, and 
produces a magnificent effect, 
SS ed a aL 
Hints on Bulb Culture. 
Proper Conditions of Soil. 
Only plant bulbs when the ground is in 
a nice friable condition, and never when 
the soil is wet and sticky Better plant 
late in good friable soil than early in wet 
saturated ground Aa 
After digging or trenching, the ground 
should be allowed to settle at least ten 
-days before planting If planted on freshly 
trenched ground, as the land subsides the 
bulbs will be drawn down below their 
: er depth 
pause aaetGars have a tendency to 
‘plant too deeply, and thousands of bulbs 
are destroyed annually by too deep plant- 
ing (crocuses especially suffer from this 
error) The proper guide to go by is the 
pulb itself, which should be covered with 
goil once and a half to twice its own 
depth but not more, measure the bulb 
from its base to its shoulder Thus a 
daffodil bulb measuring two inches from 
its base to shoulder should be covered 
with three to four inches of soil, and a 
crocus bulb measuring one inch in depth 
with only one and a half to two inches 
of soil. 
Most bulbs object to the ammonical 
ploperties of manure, consequently hot 
or fresh stable manure should never be 
used to digin the ground for bulbs, but 
only well decayed stable or cow manure 
How to get Flowers in Winter. 
_ Very few things are easier to grow than 
outdoor bulbs By sprinkling sand liber- 
ally round the bulbs when planting, they 
will thrive in almost any soil Most bulbs 
ina few years multiply enormously A 
writer on bulbs, some years ago said many 
people will spend shillings on coleus 
plants, which probably die in the same 
winter, whilst the same amount of money 
expended on bulbs would give the pur- 
chaser an infinitely more amount of 
-pleasure and profit 
The Polyanthus narcissus, such as the 
Paper-white, Solisl, wor, with the lovely 
Romar: Hyacinth, open the bulb season : 
then follow the Daffodils, Snowflakes, 
Snowdrops, later Polyanthus narcissus, 
Ranunculus, Poeticus, Freesias, etc. 
Fresh manure must not be put in with 
bulbs, the best stuff to use is street 
sweepings about twelve months old 
Slugs often attack Hyacinths when the 
buds are just breaking through the 
ground: a certain remedy is to place 
fairly fresh lime in a bag and shake it 
_ over the plants at night. 
Ranunculus should be soaked in water 
a few hours before planting 
