It is well to have your beds made so narrow that the weeds can be destroyed, and the ground kept mellow, without walking among the plants. Before the heavy frosts of winter appear your bulb beds should be protected with leaves. Over these throw a little brush, to prevent the wind from uncovering your bulbs. If your bulbs have been planted a year or two, cover them with manure in the fall; the flowers in the spring will repay you for all expense and trouble.
Hyacinths and tulips should be planted about six inches apart, the hyacinth four inches deep, and the tulip three inches. The early varieties will often blossom the latter part of March. Crocuses blossom even earlier. They should be planted about three inches apart, and two inches deep. Snowdrops—the first flower of spring—should be planted in the same way as the crocus, or a little nearer together. Narcissuses, including the daffodil and jonquil, should be planted in the same manner as the hyacinth. All these bulbs can be planted in beds where you may desire to place either seedlings or any other annual, which will blossom after these bulbs have done flowering.
It is best to take up all your bulbs every third year, when they are done flowering, and separate the newly-formed bulbs from the old. Keep them in a dry place till October, then replant as we have directed.
8.—JAPAN LILIES.
Of all the valuable flowers that have been imported from Japan or China, during the past twenty years, nothing equals the exquisitely beautiful Japan Lily—Lilium Lancifolium. No description can do anything like justice to these flowers, or show the beautiful, frost-like white of the surface, glistening like dew-drops; or the rubies that stand out on the surface of one of the varieties, while the end of the leaf is shaded like the exquisite pink, or the inside of some sea-shells from India.
There are nine varieties. The pure white and crimson, Lancifolium Monstrosum rubrum; the pure white Lancifolium Monstrosum album, and a delicate rose of the same variety; then the dark crimson, Lilium Melpomene; white, spotted with delicate salmon, Lilium Punctatum; the pure white, with projecting glistening spots, called Lilium Lancifolium album; Lilium Lancifolium rubrum, white ground, spotted with crimson; Lilium Lancifolium roseum, shaded and spotted with rose; and Lilium auratum. This is sometimes called Golden-banded Lily, and is truly the king of the lilies. The flower is ten to twelve inches across, composed of six delicate white ivory parts, each thickly studded with crimson spots, with a golden band through its centre. In addition to the beauty of these lilies, they are fragrant, and as hardy as any of our common varieties.
Strong bulbs send up flowering stems from three to five feet in height, and begin to bloom about the middle of August. Each flowering stem will have from two to a dozen flowers, according to the strength of the bulb.
Rich garden soil is all that is needed for these lilies. Plant them in October or early in November, about a foot apart, and five inches deep. The bulbs should remain several years, if possible, without removal. These must be the lilies that surpassed Solomon in all his glory. Lilium Longiflorum is called very beautiful. The flowers are snow-white, trumpet-shaped flowers. Lilium Brownii, new variety, superb white.