We all admire the bright bulb flowers that are among the first to blossom in the spring. These mostly come from Holland, or at least attain their perfection there. We have just spoken of the importance of planting flowers at such a time that they may live their career when our climate is most like that from which they come. In the case of bulbs, spring and early summer is the most favorable time for them in this country, and fall is the proper time for planting.
The exact time in the fall to plant, how to plant, what bulbs to plant, when to put a winter overcoat on the bed, and other details, I will leave for Mr. Hunn to tell in the following Leaflet. He has had many years' experience in the management of flowers, and I advise you to read carefully what he says.
Fig. 368. A bulb bed at the school house.
LEAFLET LXXIX.
A TALK ABOUT BULBS BY THE GARDENER.[100]
By C. E. HUNN.
Perhaps you would like to hear from the gardener. Your Uncle John has told you something about preparing a bed for your plants. His advice is very good; but the bulbs we are to talk about are like those notional children whom he mentions and they do not want tallow candles for any part of their meal.
You should know that bulbs do not want to come into direct contact with the stable fertilizer. They want the fertilizer below them where the feeding roots may nibble at it when the bulb is hard at work developing the leaves and flower. You know that all the leaves and the flowers were made the year before, and the bulb simply holds them until the new roots have formed. No kind of treatment will make a bulb produce more flowers than were formed in the year it grew (last year); but the better the treatment the larger and finer the flowers will be.