124 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
August  8,  1895, 
proceeding  is  to  prepare  the  sets.  For  this  purpose  the  long  small 
roots  which  grow  out  from  the  main  plant  should  be  used  ;  the 
longest,  straightest,  and  cleanest  of  these  are  selected  to  form  the 
future  giant  sticks  of  Horseradish,  and  are  prepared  in  the  following 
way  ; — Take  the  piece  of  root  in  the  left  hand,  then  with  the 
right  rub  off  all  the  eyes  and  young  fibrous  roots,  leaving  about 
a  quarter  or  half  an  inch  undisturbed  at  the  largest  end  of  each 
piece. 
According  to  the  general  practice  the  pieces  to  form  the  future 
sticks  are  buried  as  deeply  as  possible  in  the  ground  ;  but  I  advise 
quite  the  reverse,  for  the  sets  when  placed  in  the  ground  are  not 
more  than  6  inches  below  the  surface.  In  planting,  a  piece  of 
stick  is  pushed  from  the  top  edge  of  the  bed  in  a  slanting  direction 
towards  the  middle  of  the  bed  ;  the  sets  are  then  placed  in  the 
holes  thus  made,  but  care  is  taken  in  performing  this  operation  to 
place  the  pieces  of  root  in  the  holes  as  straight  as  possible.  Care 
must  also  be  taken  to  place  the  smaller  or  right  end  in  the  hole 
first,  otherwise  the  order  of  things  becomes  reversed,  and  the  root, 
or  that  portion  of  the  piece  intended  to  produce  the  future  roots, 
will  occupy  the  position  of  the  crown.  The  piece  of  root  should 
be  pushed  in  about  2  inches  further  than  the  edge  of  the  bed. 
This  is  all  that  will  be  necessary  to  be  done. 
The  piece  of  root,  or  set,  having  been  planted  in  this  way,  it  will 
soon  commence  forming  roots  at  the  base,  and  these  will  at  once 
search  out  the  manure  which  has  been  placed  in  the  centre  of  the 
bed.  As  soon  as  they  have  found  it  the  set  will  increase  in  size  to 
an  extraordinary  extent,  and  speedily  a  bud  will  break  out  from 
the  other  end,  which  forms  the  crown  of  the  plant.  When  leaves 
appear,  reciprocal  action  between  the  root  and  foliage  is  carried  on 
energetically,  and  the  plant  is  then  matured  with  great  rapidity. 
Scarcely  a  single  root  is  formed  between  the  crown  and  the  base  of 
the  rootstock.  Here  there  is  a  cluster  of  roots  which  have  found 
their  way  into  the  manure,  and  the  straightest  and  best  of  these 
must  be  saved  for  making  future  plantations.  The  set  does  not 
grow  any  longer  after  being  planted,  but  increases  in  thickness  to  a 
wonderful  extent,  and  from  the  base  to  the  crown  is  white  and 
perfectly  free  from  roots. — J.  W. 
[At  the  request  of  a  correspondent  we  reprint  the  gist  of  the 
article  on  this  subject  that  appeared  in  our  columns  in  1867,  and  to 
which  reference  was  made  in  the  obituary  notice  of  Mr.  Wills  on 
page  53.] 
THE  FLORISTS’  TULIP. 
[By  JA3.  W.  Bentlkt,  Hon.  Secretary  of  the  Royal  National  Tulip  Society.] 
{Continued  from  page  289  last  vol.) 
Many  of  the  older  writers  recommend  the  months  of  September 
or  October  for  sowing  the  seeds  of  Tulips,  but  in  later  years  it  has 
been  customary  with  the  majority  of  seedling  raisers  to  defer  the 
operation  until  February  or  March.  The  old  florists,  no  doubt, 
selected  the  autumn  as  the  most  suitable  time,  because,  in  a  state  of 
Nature,  the  seeds  would  naturally  at  that  time  fall  to  the  ground. 
But  the  objects  of  the  florist  are  in  some  ways  different  from  those 
of  Mother  Nature,  who  cares  little  or  nothing  for  the  safety  of  the 
individual  provided  the  type  survives,  and  of  the  seeds  she  sows,  so 
lavishly  few,  in  proportion  to  the  number  produced,  grow  to  per¬ 
fection.  The  florist,  however,  is  anxious  to  produce  the  greatest 
possible  number  of  seedlings  from  his  carefully  grown  seeds,  and 
naturally  tries  to  improve  on  the  wasteful  methods  of  Nature.  The 
old  French  Tulip  growers  had  observed  that,  even  if  the  seeds  were 
sown  in  October  they  did  not  germinate  until  the  following  March, 
and  that  it  was  therefore  at  the  best  useless  to  expose  the  seeds  to 
the  risks  and  chances  of  the  winter.  This  matter  is  well  noticed 
in  a  brightly  written  French  work  entitled  “  Traite  des  Tulipes,” 
published  at  Avignon  in  1760.  Incidentally  it  must  be  confessed 
that  a  perusal  of  this  little  volume,  with  its  careful  explanations  of 
all  the  technical  terms  used  by  the  growers  of  that  time,  its  clear 
and  sensible  directions  for  the  cultivation  of  the  flower  (directions 
that  can  be  scarcely  improved  on  after  a  lapse  of  135  years),  its 
copious  list  of  previous  writers  on  the  subject,  and  its  clear  state¬ 
ment  of  the  points  which  were  supposed  to  constitute  excellence, 
makes  one  ashamed  of  the  fragmentary  and  incomplete  character 
of  anything  that  has  been  written  on  the  Tulip  for  the  last  century 
in  this  country. 
It  is  true  that  we  have  since  formulated  standards  of  excellence 
in  form,  purity,  and  marking,  and  have  become  alive  to  the  value 
of  cross-fertilisation  ;  but  with  the  exception  of  these  points,  the 
importance  of  which  I  have  no  idea  of  minimising,  there  is  little 
that  we  could  teach  this  old-time  French  grower. 
The  end  of  February  is,  in  my  opinion,  the  best  time  to  sow 
the  seeds,  and  there  are  two  ways  of  raising  seedling  Tulips.  The 
first,  which  may  be  called  the  easy  and  uncertain  method,  is  to  sow 
the  seeds,  say  2  or  3  inches  apart,  in  the  open  ground,  keep  the 
bed  free  from  moss,  weeds,  and  cats,  give  water  when  required, 
and  wait  the  necessary  years  until  the  seedlings  bloom.  This 
method  is  so  simple  that  many  of  its  advantages  must  be  obvious 
to  anyone  ;  and  there  is  another  which  must,  in  fairness,  be  men¬ 
tioned.  Seedling  Tulip  bulbs,  during  the  years  in  which  they  are 
growing  to  blooming  size,  have  a  peculiarity  (described  fully  below) 
of  increasing  in  number  ;  consequently,  as  the  years  go  by,  a  little 
clump  of  plants  will  be  JEound  growing  where  each  seed  that  has 
grown  and  prospered  was  planted.  When  any  member  of  this 
little  clump  becomes  strong  enough  to  bloom  the  grower  has  a  little 
stock  at  once,  and  if  the  novelty  be  likely  to  be  a  good  one,  such 
stock  is  a  great  advantage.  If  the  bloom  is  a  bad  one  the  whole 
clump  can  easily-  be  destroyed  and  the  entire  removal  of  that 
seedling  from  the  bed  ensured. 
The  disadvantages  of  raising  seedlings  in  this  manner  are  how¬ 
ever  so  numerous  that,  in  my  opinion,  it  cannot  be  called  a  good 
one.  The  risk  of  losing  the  tiny  bulbs  during  the  first  two  or 
three  years  is  great ;  they  are  so  little  under  the  control  of  the 
grower  that  even  under  the  most  favourable  conditions  the  per¬ 
centage  of  losses  from  insects,  unfavourable  weather,  and  other 
causes  must  be  large.  I  gave  the  plan  a  trial  some  years  ago,  with 
the  result  that  out  of  over  200  seedlings  that  grew  in  the  first  year 
only  thirty-two  came  up  the  second.  I  pursued  the  experiment  no 
further,  but  lifted  the  scattered  survivors,  fearing  that  another 
year’s  trial  would  leave  me  none  to  take  up.  Probably  the  propor¬ 
tion  of  loss  would  not  be  nearly  so  large  in  a  very  favourable 
situation  ;  mine  situated  about  eight  miles  north  of  Manchester 
could  not  be  described  as  such  without  gross  flattery. 
The  second  method  is  to  sow  the  seeds  in  pans  or  boxes.  I 
recommend  that  these  should  be  about  8  inches  deep,  and  have 
sufficient  holes  in  the  bottoms  to  insure  good  drainage.  A  quantity 
of  broken  crocks  should  first  be  put  in,  and  the  pans  or  boxes  filled 
up  to  within  2  inches  of  the  top  with  finely  divided  rich  loam,  to 
which  some  coarse  sand  may  be  added.  Each  Tulip  seed  in  which 
the  germ  can  be  seen  should  be  gently  pressed  into  the  soil  at 
regular  distances  of  about  an  inch  from  each  other.  When  the 
sowing  is  complete  the  seeds  should  be  covered  about  half  an  inch 
deep  with  the  same  kind  of  soil.  The  pans  or  boxes  must  then 
have  the  protection  of  a  cool  house,  or  a  cool,  well-ventilated 
frame,  and  be  carefully  watered.  It  is  most  essential  that  the  soil 
be  kept  moist  until  the  seedlings  are  above  ground,  as  dryness 
when  the  seed  is  germinating  is  fatal.  The  heat  and  light  of  the 
sun  do  nothing  but  good,  provided  there  is  abundance  of  ventilation 
and  sufficient  moisture.  The  seedlings,  which  come  up  bent  like  the 
first  of  an  Onion  seed,  generally  appear  in  May,  and  grow  with 
fine  grass-like  single  leaves  until  the  end  of  June,  when  they  die 
down.  Weeds  and  moss  should  be  carefully  removed  during  the 
growing  period.  As  soon  as  signs  of  djing  down  appear  all  water 
should  be  withheld,  and  the  pans  stored  away  in  a  dry  cool  place 
until  the  following  February,  when  they  should  be  placed 
again  in  the  cool  house,  the  surface  of  the  soil  being 
scratched  slightly  in  order  to  open  it.  Water  should  be 
given  from  time  to  time,  when  the  small  bulbs  formed 
during  the  first  year,  which  if  they  had  been  taken  up 
would  be  found  to  resemble  the  top  figure  in  the 
illustration  below,  will  begin  to  grow. 
Each  tiny  bulb  produces  only  a  single  leaf,  stouter 
and  more  blade-like  than  those  of  the  first  year.  The 
plants  begin  to  die  down  in  June,  when  water  should 
be  withheld  and  the  boxes  allowed  to  get  dry.  The 
bulbs  should  then  be  carefully  lifted  and  stored  away 
until  autumn.  A  curious  feature  of  this  lifting  will 
be  that  the  largest  bulbs  will  be  found  most  probably 
among  the  crocks,  the  seedling  Tulips  having  a  habit 
of  producing  “  droppers,”  which  are  bulbs  formed  at  the 
end  of  underground  pipes,  or  hollow  stems  sent  from 
the  parent  bulb.  These  droppers,  illustrated  in  the  fig.  it. 
lower  part  of  fig.  17,  are  generally  the  finest  bulbs,  and 
care  must  be  taken  not  to  miss  any  of  them.  It  is  this  annoying 
ambition  of  the  one-year-old  bulb  to  become  a  parent  that  causes 
the  tedious  delay  in  arriving  at  blooming  size,  as  instead  of  one 
larger  bulb  being  produced,  two,  and  sometimes  more  bulbs, 
often  little  larger  than  the  bulb  of  the  year  before,  are  taken  up. 
Another  difficulty  now  presents  itself,  for  the  grower,  in  order  to 
avoid  reduplications,  has  to  select  the  largest  bulb  and  destroy  the 
others  if  he  wishes  to  keep  his  seedling  bed  free  from  duplicates. 
It  is  very  desirable  to  avoid  these  duplicates,  as  seedling  breeders 
are  often  so  much  alike  that  the  presence  of  duplicates  makes  it 
very  difficult  for  the  grower  to  differentiate  his  varieties  exactly. 
This  may  not  seem  of  great  moment,  but  much  confusion  has 
occurred  in  the  past  from  carelessness  on  this  point. 
(To  be  continued.) 
