Benefits of Bulb Gardening

Written by gardening

Sunday, 19 August 2007

An essay of the benefits of bulb gardening.

Benefits of Bulb Gardening

Lily disease can be prevented by dusting bulbs with a little carbolic powder, or, in my opinion, by watering growing Lilies once a month with rain-water just made black on the surface by powdered charcoal.

Pot plants of many bulbous species become attacked occasionally by green-fly, red-spider, etc., but the use of a Vapour Cone, to fumigate the greenhouse, twice, leaving one night between the operations, is nearly certain to cure this evil. However, sponging, or spraying, the plants with soft soap and rain-water should be tried first, as it is likely to render the other remedy unnecessary.

Bulbous plants that continue prolific year after year are amazingly cheaper to cultivate than are the ordinary tender subjects used for bedding, or raised annually, like Cinerarias, Primulas, and Salvias, for the conservatory.

There are not many that refuse to decorate our livingrooms as pot-plants, either for months together or for weeks, or days, though certain species, notably the fair ordinary Poet's Narcissus, will not ' force/

Out in the open we may have to scare sparrows from the early Crocuses, but we shall not be obliged to fight hard with foes, except on the Dahlias' behalf. The coco-nut-fibre refuse mulch, or the cinder-ash, or even the sharp gritty sand that we use among our bulbous plants, keep away the slugs and snails that crawl constantly to devour Sweet Peas, Pansies, etc.

And what a noble garden the bulb one may be, with its rows of silver Lilies, flaming groups of Red-hot Pokers, lofty spikes of Eremuri, and countless myriadtinted spearheads of Gladioli !

Let us be enthusiasts, then, not as the Tulip maniacs became, but with the wisdom of philosophers and the reverence of true artists. Only a genius can create a perfect flower garden, but thank God! It is, after all, merely a matter of combining perfect flowers !