PLATE 5.
An ordinary good garden soil—that is, one that is regularly dug, hoed, manured, and cropped with some class of plants—will only need to be well dug for bulbs, and to have some well-decayed manure and soot incorporated with it a week or two before planting. For some bulbs, such as the Mariposa Lilies (Calochorti), some of the bulbous Irises, and a few other kinds, it may be necessary to take particular pains with the preparation of the soil for them. Attention has been specially called to plants of this nature, where such has been considered necessary. It should be remembered that when bulbous plants are attacked by fungoid diseases, referred to at [p. 145], it is very often the result of a badly prepared soil, and not to any inherent defect in the bulbs.
[HINTS TO BEGINNERS.]
There is a beginning to everything, and the cultivation of bulbous plants is no exception to the rule. It is probable in many cases that the beginner at bulb-growing falls into precisely the same errors as the beginner with other classes of plants. The most common error of all, perhaps, is that he wants to grow at once every bulbous plant known. He sees a book, like the present one for example, and admires the beautiful pictures of bulbous plants in it. The result may be—and I hope it will be—a keen desire to invest in the bulbs that can produce such charming blossoms. But this keen desire should be tempered with discretion. His garden may be only a small one, and perhaps already stocked with many other plants. As he cannot hope to get the whole of Kew Gardens into it at once, it would be as well to start with only a few kinds of bulbs. I do not mean of a few bulbs of many kinds, as he is almost sure to be disappointed in the results. In these days of imperial thought it is no use thinking of producing an effect in a garden with six bulbs of either Snowdrops, Crocuses, Tulips, or Daffodils. It is as well to think of the larger bulbs like the Lilies and choice Hyacinths in dozens; of the medium sized ones like Tulips, Daffodils, Tritonias, and bedding Hyacinths in hundreds; and of the smaller ones like Crocuses, Snowdrops, Spanish Irises, Scillas, Chionodoxas, and Bluebells in thousands. The dearer and choicer kinds are better left alone, perhaps, until some advance has been made with the others.
[Buying Bulbs.]—To buy bulbous plants in dozens, hundreds, or thousands of course means money. The beginner, however, is not advised to buy large quantities of all the kinds mentioned to begin with, as the cost might be prohibitive, or the convenience for their proper treatment inadequate. What is strongly recommended, however, is to start with a large number of any one, two, or three kinds as can be afforded one year, instead of frittering away the same amount of money over a few bulbs each of perhaps a dozen different kinds which will fail to produce the anticipated effect later on. It is much better, for instance, to buy, say 100 bulbs of cottage or Mayflowering Tulips, than to invest in 100 bulbs belonging to eight different genera.
The 100 Tulips would make a fine show in the garden, because there would probably be enough of them; whereas the other bulbs, although quite as handsome in their own way would be lost, or at least inconspicuous, owing to the small number of each in flower at the same time.
If only one or two kinds of bulbs can be bought in sufficient quantity each season, with care they can be increased each year afterwards, and need not be purchased again. This will permit of the purchase of a sufficient number of one or two other kinds the following year, and as these will increase and multiply in the same way, there will be quite a large number of excellent bulbs available at the end of a few years. Each season there is a larger and better display than the preceding one, and that is a result very rarely attained, even after several years' labour, and a lot of money has been spent, when the principle of having only a few bulbs of many kinds is adopted.
If the effect is not produced the first season, enthusiasm is likely to be killed, or the interest in bulb-growing may be seriously diminished.