Value of Bulbs — Bulbs in Grass — Arrangement in Borders — Bulbs for Cutting — Propagating Bulbs — Diseases of Bulbs
Bulbous and Tuberous Plants
Our gardens owe so much of their charm to the free use of plants with bulbous or tuberous roots, that it is unnecessary to impress their value upon the reader. We have only to cast our thoughts upon the many flowers of this character which bloom from the dawn of the year to its close, to recognise their almost transcendent claims upon our notice. In the following pages an attempt has been made to assist those who wish to know something more than they have done about these plants. Much more could have been said, but the scope of the work would not permit of exhaustive details. In addition, however, to the information given in the chapters dealing with the various plants, it is desirable that a few general hints should be given regarding the uses of these plants, and how they may be turned to most account.
Bulbs in the Grass
One of the most delightful phases of bulb-growing is that of the cultivation of hardy species in the grass. Nowhere do they look so well as against the grass, whose leafage seems to harmonise so well with the general character of the bulbous plants. In addition to this, many of these bulbous plants will thrive much better in grass than in a cultivated border, where there is often too much bare soil, and where other flowers of encroaching nature can injure them. Nearly all hardy bulbs do well in grass if the place is properly prepared for them by removing a portion of the turf, forking up the earth beneath, and adding fresh soil when it is too poor, and then replacing the turf. One thing must be remembered as a sine-qua-non, and this is, that on no account must the grass be cut until the plants have ripened their leaves. This will be shown by the foliage becoming yellow. Neglect of this has been the cause of much disappointment, and it is thus advisable that the bulbs should not be planted where a neatly kept grass plot is wanted early in the year. In planting the bulbs, they ought not to be arranged in regular lines, but in masses or informal groups. As good a plan as any to follow in planting in masses in the wilder parts of the grounds, is to throw the bulbs down from the hand, and to plant them where they fall. A good lesson will be given by a glance at a long-established plantation of Snowdrops or of the wild Scilla nutans, where these will be seen to have formed charming groups and masses of greater beauty than any formal arrangement would give.
Arrangement in Borders
It is more difficult to arrange bulbs in borders in pleasing ways, and in such a manner as to harmonise or contrast in colouring with other flowers in bloom at the same time. One desirable way is not to keep all the early flowering bulbs near the front of the border, as one would naturally do, because of their dwarf habit, but to plant them so as to give balance in the border at the different seasons. Bulbous plants, like most others, look better in groups than scattered singly in lines, and it is wiser, as a rule, to plant a clump of one kind than a mixed mass. One exception, at least, is in the Montbretias, which, when mixed, look even prettier than in separate groups of one shade. Colour arrangement is always a troublesome question in planting these flowers, and there is more satisfaction, if harmony instead of sharp contrast is aimed at, by arranging, say, different shades of yellow together, than in working to secure strong contrasting effects. Such a contrast as the white Galtonia candicans and Gladiolus brenchleyensis is striking at the time, but it is not one on which the eye would love to dwell from day to day and from hour to hour.
SNOWDROPS IN GRASS
Bulbs for Cutting