Fig. 12. Cut Hyacinth Bulb.
Fig. 13. Hollowed Hyacinth Bulb.
Bulbels are often produced by an injury to the bulb. Growth of stem and leaves is prevented or checked and the energy is directed to the formation of minute buds, or bulbs, in the same manner as adventitious buds form upon a wounded stem. Advantage is taken of this fact to multiply some bulbous plants, and in the case of the hyacinths, at least, the mutilation of bulbs for this purpose is practiced to a commercial extent. Hyacinth bulbs are cut in two, or are slashed in various ways. The favorite method is to make two or three deep transverse cuts into the base of the bulb. The strongest bulbs should be chosen and the operation is performed in spring or early summer when the bulb is taken up. The bulbs are sometimes hollowed out from the under side for half or more of their length. This operation is sometimes performed later in the season than the other, and precaution should be exercised that the bulbs do not become too moist, else they will rot. Hollowed bulbs should be well dried before being planted. Both methods of preparing hyacinth bulbs are shown in Figs. [12] and [13] which are adapted from Gardeners' Chronicle. [Fig. 14] shows a portion of the base of a cross-cut bulb, with the adventitious bulbels. The mutilated bulbs are stored during summer, and are planted in fall or spring. The wounded bulbs produce very little foliage, but at the end of the first season the bulbels will have formed. The bulbels are then separated and planted by themselves in prepared beds. Several years are required for the bulbels to mature into flowering bulbs. Some of the strongest ones may produce flowering bulbs in three years, but some of them, especially those obtained from the hollowed bulbs, will not mature short of six years. This method of propagating hyacinths is confined almost entirely to Holland.
Fig. 14. Cross-Cut Bulb.
The scales of bulbs are often employed to multiply scarce varieties. From ten to thirty of the thicker scales may be removed from the outside of the bulb without serious injury to it. These are treated in the same manner as single eye cuttings. They are usually handled in flats or propagating-frames, and are pressed perpendicularly into a light and loose soil—half sharp sand and half leaf-mould—for nearly or quite their entire length, or are scattered in damp moss. Keep the soil simply moist, and for hardy and half-hardy species keep the temperature rather low—from 45° to 60°. Slight bottom heat may sometimes be given to advantage. In from three to ten weeks a little bulbel, or sometimes two or more, will appear at the base of the scale, as shown in [Fig. 15].