[COMBINATIONS OF BULBOUS AND NON-BULBOUS PLANTS.]
While bulbous plants alone, especially when used in large quantities, make an effective display in the garden, they can be made much more attractive by the exercise of a little art and a pleasing combination with other plants that come into blossom at the same period.
In the first place, true bulbous plants, like Tulips, Daffodils, and Bluebells for example, that flower at the same time may be mixed together for planting in grassy banks, or near the margins of lakes, &c., where they are not likely to be disturbed for several years. Similar combinations may be made with Snowdrops, Chionodoxas, Scillas, Leucojums, Crocuses, &c., that appear in the spring; and with Colchicums, autumn-flowering Crocuses, and Sternbergias in the late autumn.
In the next place, the grace and beauty of bulbous plants proper are enhanced by judiciously mixing them with plants of a non-bulbous nature. Among these latter may be noted the following as being particularly useful:—Wallflowers, Forget-me-Nots, Polyanthuses, Primroses, White Arabis (A. albida), and Yellow Alyssum (A. saxatile), Violas and Pansies, the Winter Aconite (Eranthis hiemalis, and E. cilicica), Silene, Aubrietia. These are all useful for planting in the autumn at the same time as the bulbs of Tulips, Daffodils, Hyacinths, Crocuses, Snowdrops, Scillas, Chionodoxas, &c. Where formal beds are necessary the non-bulbous plants may be put in first, leaving sufficient space between the plants for the insertion of the bulbs afterwards.
To secure effect and contrast, a little skill, or rather knowledge, of the different plants used, is necessary. Haphazard and careless combinations are not to be encouraged in the formal flower-beds. It would be a mistake, for instance, to mix three or four different kinds of bulbs (e.g., Snowdrops, Tulips, Daffodils, or Hyacinths) with Wallflowers, Forget-me-Nots, or any of the other plants mentioned above. The effect would be ludicrous, and give the beds a higgledy-piggledy appearance. Nor would it be wise to use one kind of plant in such a way that the other would be smothered or practically concealed from view. This could happen easily with combinations of such plants as Wallflowers or Forget-me-Nots, and such bulbs as Crocuses, Snowdrops, &c.
The true idea of combination should be such that one plant is really as prominent as the other when in blossom—each one, in fact, lending and borrowing at the same time some charm from the other. Colours of course play an important part in this scheme, and care should be exercised at the time of planting not to combine Yellow Polyanthuses, Yellow Wallflowers, or Yellow Violas, for instance, with Yellow Tulips or Daffodils; and so on.
HYACINTHS (43-46)
The following are a few suggested combinations that will look well:—