If I wanted to make a bulb bed, I should choose, if possible, a sandy soil and throw out the top soil to the depth of six inches. Then I should put into the bottom of the bed about two inches of well rotted manure and spade it into the soil. Then I should throw back half of the top soil, level it off nicely, set the bulbs firmly on this bed, and then cover them with the remainder of the soil; in this way you will have the bulbs from three to four inches below the surface. It is dark down there and in the fall months the top of the ground is cooler than at the depth of five or six inches and the top of the bulb will not want to grow, while the bottom, which is always in a hurry, will send out roots, to push out the leaves and flowers the next spring.
When the weather is cold enough to freeze a hard crust on the soil, the bed should have its winter overcoat. This may be straw, hay, cornstalks, or leaves spread over the bed to the depth of six inches if the material is coarse; but if you use leaves, three inches will be enough, because the leaves lie close together and may smother out the frost that is in the ground and let the bulbs start. What we want is to keep them asleep until spring, because if they start too early the hard freezes of March and early April will spoil their beauty if the leaves or flowers are near or above the surface. Early in April the covering may be removed gradually and should all be off the beds before the leaves show above the ground.
Fig. 369. Simple designs for bulb beds.
Perhaps many of you cannot find a sandy place for your beds; if not, make your beds as has been told you, leaving the stones in the bottom of the bed for drainage. Then, when you are ready to set the bulb, place a large handful of sand where your bulb is to go and set your bulb on it; this will keep the water from standing around the bulb. Very good results may be obtained on heavy soil by this method.
What kind of bulbs shall we put into these beds? Choose hyacinths, tulips, narcissus, or daffodils, with snowdrops or crocuses of various colors around the edge.
If you use hyacinths you can have the national colors, red, white, and blue, or many shades of either color, as shown in the diagrams ([Fig. 369]). Of tulips you can have stars or ribbons of yellow, white, or crimson, or in fact almost any color except true blue. In narcissus, yellow, sulfur, and white are the colors. The little crocuses come in yellow, blue, white, and striped colors, and are in bloom and gone before the large flowers take your attention. Many other bulbs are fine for spring flowering; but as most of them are more difficult to grow and many of them rather expensive, I do not think we will discuss them now.
Suppose we want a bed of red, white, and blue hyacinths ([Fig. 369]), and make it six feet in diameter: how many bulbs would you want? Now, hyacinths should be planted six inches apart each way, and the outside row should be at least three inches from the edge of the bed. You see you will want a little over one hundred bulbs, which, if one person had to buy them, would cost him a considerable sum; but if fifty or more boys and girls would club together it would be easy for everyone.
If you want a bed of tulips, they should be planted four or five inches apart instead of six inches. So you will need more bulbs; but they are cheaper than hyacinths. The narcissus bulbs, being still smaller than tulips, may be planted three inches apart; and the little crocuses, the first flowers of spring, should touch one another, as should also the snowdrops.
Perhaps many of you do not wish to wait until spring for your bulbs to flower, in which case we must try to persuade them to bloom through the winter, say at Christmas. Nearly all bulbs are good-natured, and may be coaxed to do things that nature never asks them to do; so if we go at it right we shall find it very easy to make them think their time to bloom has come, even if the ground is covered with snow and the ice is thick on the ponds. Hyacinths, narcissus, and crocus can all be made to flower in the winter by starting this way. Get the bulbs so as to be able to pot them by the middle or last of October, or if earlier all the better. The soil should be rich, sandy loam if possible; if not, the best you can get, to which add about one-fourth the bulk of sand and mix thoroughly. If ordinary flower pots are to be used, put in the bottom a few pieces of broken pots, charcoal, or small stones for drainage; then fill the pot with dirt so that when the bulbs are set on the dirt the top of the bulb is even with the rim of the pot. Fill around it with soil, leaving just the tip of the bulb showing above the dirt. If the soil is heavy, a good plan is to sprinkle a small handful of sand under the bulb to carry off the water, the same as is done in the beds outdoors. If you do not have pots you may use boxes. Starch boxes are a good size to use as they are not heavy to handle; and I have seen excellent flowers on bulbs planted in old tomato cans. If boxes or cans are used, care must be taken to have holes in the bottoms to let the water run out. A large-size hyacinth bulb will do well in a five-inch pot. The same size pot will do for three or four narcissuses or eight to twelve crocuses.