Part 7

10. =Silene= (Rose), with White or Yellow Tulips and Daffodils.

NATURALISING BULBOUS PLANTS IN THE GRASS.

Although it has only been recognised of late years, owing chiefly to the teachings of Mr. Robinson, there is no place so natural perhaps for the artistic display of bulbous plants as in some piece of grass-land, whether it be a meadow, a sloping bank, the margin of a piece of water, or even a lawn. Every lover of bulbous plants, however, cannot gratify his individual tastes as to where he would like his bulbs to blossom, and he must perforce make the best of the piece of ground--large or small as it may be--that happens to be at his disposal. In large parks and gardens there is no difficulty, or there ought to be none, in securing suitable sites to show off the natural graces of the various bulbous plants recommended for the purpose in this volume. And even in small suburban gardens, where one often sees a piece of grass lying bare and cheerless in winter, a better use might be made of bulbs. Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coute. Once the initial cost and labour of getting the bulbs beneath the turf is over there is joy ever afterwards, and keen anticipation in watching the spring and autumn Crocuses, Sternbergias, Snowdrops, Snowflakes, the smaller Fritillaries, the Chionodoxas, Scillas, and Bluebells, Narcissi, Grape Hyacinths, and even Tulips, when one is not in too great a hurry to get the mowing done early in the year. One group or another of these plants (to which may be added the tuberous winter Aconite, with its glistening yellow blossoms) may be grown in the smallest of gardens, and will brighten them year after year without trouble or expense, until, perhaps, they become so crowded, that lifting and re-planting becomes essential to prevent suffocation.

BULBOUS PLANTS UNDER TREES AND SHRUBS.

Early flowering bulbs are capital for planting beneath deciduous trees on lawns or in large parks and gardens. The bulbs bloom at a period when the trees are leafless, and therefore sufficient sunlight is able to percolate through the bare branches for their benefit. Such kinds as Snowdrops, Scillas, Chionodoxas, &c., are excellent for this purpose, and may be left for several seasons without disturbance, provided they get a top-dressing of well-decayed manure during the autumn. Before the trees expand their leaves, the bulbous plants beneath have finished their work for the season, so the absence of light during the summer does not interfere with them in the least. On the other hand, however, they enjoy the cool refreshing shade of the tree foliage, which prevents them from being shrivelled up.

BULBOUS PLANTS FOR CUT FLOWERS.

There are comparatively few of the bulbous plants mentioned in this volume that are not fit to be cut for the adornment of bowls, vases, &c., in the dwelling house. Some kinds, of course, are much better suited for the purpose than others, and it would be difficult indeed to surpass the elegance of the Daffodils, Tulips, Wood Hyacinths, and Bluebells in the spring and early summer. Following these we have numerous Liliums--white, yellow, orange, red, variously blotched and speckled, and provided with long wiry stems that are often a great advantage. The late summer and autumn flowering kinds are best represented by the Montbretias, Tritonias, Gladiolus, Brodiaeas, and Sparaxis. The dwarf-flowering bulbous plants, like Snowdrops, Crocuses, Grape Hyacinths, Chionodoxas, Colchicums, Sternbergias, Leucojums, &c., although they look charming in bold masses in the garden, scarcely afford much length of stalk to enable them to be used with great effect in bowls, vases, &c., by themselves. As a groundwork to taller-stemmed blossoms, however, they are often found to come in very useful.

It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to say that the more simply and naturally flowers are "bunched" the better they look in room decorations. Very often indeed, it is difficult to improve on a bunch of flowers picked at random in the garden and placed in bowls of water as they are--with stems of various lengths, and the blossoms facing in different directions. That some people have extraordinary notions as to what a "bunch" of flowers really means may be gathered from an inspection of any ordinary local flower show in the kingdom. At such exhibitions a "bunch" of flowers is generally as large, flat, unwieldy, and squatty as possible--the various kinds being jammed together as if they were "sticks" of Asparagus done up for market. Educated judges have been endeavouring for some years to get an improvement in the method of putting bunches of flowers together, but with very little success up to the present. The same old order of things prevaileth.

PLATE 12. LEUCOJUM VERNUM, (47) MUSCARI CONICUM (48), ERYTHRONIUM JOHNSONI (49), TECOPHYLAEA CYANOCROCUS (50).

=When to pick Flowers.=--Of course, when people want flowers they will pick them at any time--if they happen to be in their own gardens, not in other people's. It may be as well, however, to remind the reader that if picked either early in the morning--the earlier the better--or in the evening after sunset, flowers last much longer in a cut state, than if they are picked at any other period of the day. Perhaps the very worst time to pick flowers is from mid-day to 2 or 3 o'clock--especially in summer. The heat takes a good deal of substance out of the blossoms, and many get so "blown" that if cut at that particular period of the day, the petals never recover, but drop off in a few hours. Tulips are well-known examples of this. In the morning and evening, the petals close up to a point--really to prevent the pollen from getting drenched with dew or rain. But when the sun shines, they open out, and lie well back from the stamens so that insects may be lured to take the pollen from one flower to another. In this state the blossoms should not be cut or pulled as they will last but a short time.

The water in which flowers are stood should be fresh and clean. If some time has elapsed before the flowers are placed in it, about an inch or so of the stems may be cut off with a sharp knife, so as to allow a layer of fresh cells to come in contact with the water. Some flowers last much longer than others in a cut state, and the period may be prolonged a little by putting a pinch of salt, or a little clean charcoal in the water at the same time.

BULBOUS PLANTS FOR COLD GREENHOUSES.

How often one hears complaints as to the lack of flowers during the coldest months of the year. And how often one sees, in almost empty greenhouses, bare shelves that could be made gay with blossom, and with but little labour or expense. This can be done easily enough by selecting early flowering bulbs, and having them "potted up" early in the autumn, so that they will have made plenty of roots by, say, Christmas time. The pots most generally useful are 5-inch ones (often called 48's). These should have some broken pieces put in the bottom for drainage, and over this a layer of moss or fibre to prevent the soil from choking it up later on. A compost made up of three parts of rich fibrous loam, one part of silver or river sand, and one part of leaf-soil, all well mixed, should be prepared. A handful or two is placed over the drainage, and one, two, three, or five bulbs, according to size, may then be placed on a level bottom. The pot is then filled to within about a quarter of an inch of the rim, the soil being firmly pressed down between the bulbs, the tops of which may be either level with the surface or beneath it. In any case, it is not necessary to bury bulbs that are going to have the protection of a greenhouse so deep as those planted in the open air, where they will have no protection from the weather.

The bulbs, having been potted, and labelled if necessary, say sometime in October or November, need not be taken into the greenhouse at once. It is better to keep them in the open air, covered with two or three inches of fine ashes or coco-nut fibre until the bulbs have made plenty of new roots in the soil, or they may be sheltered in a cold frame. Any time after this, as many pots as may be required are taken out of the ashes or fibre, the remains of which should be washed from the pots and shaken off the surface of the soil. If there is a slight warmth in the greenhouse, just enough to keep the frost out on cold nights, so much the better, but too much heat is unnecessary, unless one wishes to "force" bulbs into very early bloom. This, however, generally means exhaustion, if not death, to the bulbs so artificially treated.

There are many kinds of bulbous plants suitable for the decoration of cold greenhouses in winter and early spring in the way indicated, and the following may be regarded as a good selection:--Bulbocodiums, Chionodoxas, Crocuses (Spring), Erythroniums, Fritillarias (dwarf), Snowdrops, Hyacinths, Snowflakes, Grape Hyacinths, Dwarf Narcissi, Puschkinias, Scillas, Sternbergia Fischeriana, Bulbous Irises, Tecophilaea--all of which are described in their respective places in this work.

BULBOUS PLANTS FOR WINDOW BOXES.

PLATE 13. BRODIAEA UNIFLORA (51-52), CHIONODOXA SARDENSIS (53), ERYTHRONIUM DENS-CANIS (54-55)

When the Zonal Pelargoniums, Marguerites, Fuchsias, Lobelias, &c., have done their duty in the window boxes during the summer and autumn months, it is essential that something else must take their places for the winter and spring months, unless they are to be left bare. Dwarf shrubs, of course, like Aucubas, Golden Privet, Cupressus, Skimmias, &c., are much favoured, and rightly so. But in conjunction with them many kinds of bulbous plants may be used, and planted at the same time as the shrubs. Snowdrops and Crocuses are great favourites for the edges of boxes. Besides these, however, the beautiful blue-flowered Grape Hyacinths (Muscari), the Chionodoxas and Scilla sibirica, may be used in a similar way and with great effect, or as a carpet beneath the shrubs. If the latter are not placed too close together, space may be left for a few bulbs of Tulips and Daffodils to peep out between them.

Of course, window boxes filled entirely with bulbous plants would probably look much more artistic than those having a mixture of shrubs and bulbs. Combinations in miniature could be made in the same way as suggested for the open air beds on p. 41. Boxes planted with Polyanthuses, Primroses, Forget-me-Nots, Silene, White Arabis, Yellow Alyssum, Wallflowers, &c., as well as bulbs, would not look bare in autumn or winter, and would be very effective when in blossom in the spring time.

DESCRIPTIONS, CULTURE, PROPAGATION, &c., OF THE BEST BULBOUS PLANTS FOR THE OPEN AIR.

=ALLIUM.=--Although about 250 species of this liliaceous genus are known, only a dozen or so are usually met with in gardens--the limited number being probably due to the pungent and not altogether agreeable odour they emit when bruised or cut. In fact, the plants may be briefly described as more or less ornamental Onions, as they belong to the same family as this well-known esculent, and naturally possess a family likeness. The bulbs are tunicated, the leaves either flat as in the Leek, or roundish and hollow as in the ordinary Onion, while the 6-petalled starry flowers are borne in umbels on the top of the shoot that springs out of the bulb under the ground.

The kinds mentioned below flourish in ordinary good garden soil of a gritty nature, that has been deeply dug and well-manured. They are useful for the decoration of the flower border in bold patches, but are probably more natural in grass-land, where they can remain for several years undisturbed. The bulbs may be planted in early autumn, 3 or 4 inches deep--more or less according to the size of the bulbs, and will come into blossom from April and May, till July or August. As cut flowers, they are very ornamental, but unfortunately, they are not greatly used in this way owing to their odour, which some people find quite unbearable. Propagation is effected by means of offsets from the bulbs, or seeds. Two species--A. Moly, and A. neapolitanum--are often forced into early blossoms in the greenhouse, in the way mentioned at p. 46.

The following are the best kinds:--Neapolitanum, Erdeli (see Plate 18, fig. 72), karataviense, triquetrum, ursinum, and zebdanense, all with white or whitish flowers; acuminatum, hirtiflorum, Macnabianum, narcissiflorum (or pedemontanum), Ostrowskianum, Schuberti, and Suworowi, representing rose, magenta, crimson, lilac, and purple shades; the best yellow-flowered kinds are, Moly (Plate 17, fig. 68), flavum, and orientale; while coeruleum (or azureum) is the most attractive species with blue flowers. A. acuminatum is the dwarfest of these, being only about a foot high, the others rarely exceeding 1-1/2 to 2 feet, except perhaps hirtiflorum and Suworowi, which often are 3 feet high.

=AMARYLLIS Belladonna= (Belladonna Lily).--This charming member of the Narcissus family deserves more extensive cultivation than it enjoys at present. It is a native of South Africa, and has large bulbs--3 to 4 inches or more deep--with thickish, silky-woollen coats, and strap-shaped leaves, usually 12 to 18 inches long. About August and September, the sweet-scented funnel-shaped blossoms of a soft rosy colour (see Plate 31, fig. 111) are produced on top of a stout stalk, 12 to 18 inches high, after the foliage has withered. Some varieties are better than others, but the best of all is that which originated at Kew, and is remarkable for having three or four dozen rich rosy crimson flowers on a scape 2 to 3 feet high.

The Belladonna Lily can only be grown satisfactorily in the open air in the milder parts of the kingdom. The bulbs should be planted about 9 inches deep in a well-drained loamy soil containing plenty of sand and leaf-soil. Beneath a wall facing due south is generally a good position for the plants. In winter, cold rains should be kept off by placing a layer of leaves or litter over the dormant bulbs. The simplest way to increase the stock is to detach the offsets from the old bulbs whenever the latter are disturbed--say every fourth or fifth year.

Note.--The gorgeous plants grown in greenhouses under the name of Amaryllis rightly belong to the genus Hippeastrum, and are too tender for open air culture in our climate.

PLATE 14. ENGLISH IRISES (56-59)

=ANTHOLYZA.=--The brown-coated corms, sword-like leaves, and the bright-coloured tubular flowers of these plants very much resemble those of the closely-related genus Gladiolus. Indeed, what suits the Gladiolus will suit the Antholyzas in the way of a well-drained loamy soil. A somewhat warmer and sunnier position is, however, necessary, as these South African plants have not been acclimatised by selection and hybridisation in the same way as the Gladiolus. The best-known kinds are aethiopica, with spikes of scarlet and greenish flowers; caffra, rich scarlet; Cunonia, scarlet and black; fulgens, rich coppery rose; and paniculata, with red, brown, and yellow blossoms, and apparently the hardiest of all. They are all best increased by offsets.