Spring Flowers from Bulbs

Information on Spring Flowers from Bulbs.

Spring Flowers from Bulbs

No plants are more interesting to grow in the garden than the bulbous ones, especially those that are hardy. There is a peculiar fascination in buying a dry brown, black, white or yellow bulb, sometimes a mere mite of a thing, burying it in the ground, leaving it there all winter and one day in spring finding it doing its share to beautify the earth. And not the change of a seed into a plant seems so marvelous a transition.

It is in the springtime that bulbs are of the most value in the garden. At that time of the year they are simply invaluable. Not that there is any lack of perennials for spring, if flower lovers would only cast their eyes about; but in neither form nor color can these perform for the garden the gentle offices of the bulbs. Veritable herbaceous perennials though they be, they are absolutely distinct.

A close observation of American gardens for many years has shown that here is a field welltrodden in no more than a few spots. Only the tulip, hyacinth, narcissus and crocus are grown commonly, and of these It is rare to come across all four in one dooryard. As if this were not bad enough, tulips, to most, remain tulips; hyacinths are hyacinths, the narcissus is a narcissus and the crocus is a crocus, just as if the horticultural world had stood still since the middle of the last century. Single or double, red, blue, purple, pink, yellow or white are still the common differentiations. Of course, these four bulbs can give abundant satisfaction at that, but a greater satisfaction is lost through ignorance of the variety that has converted the modern catalogue into a veritable treasure-house.

Spring Flowers from Tulips 

Tulips have been separated into important subdivisions since the early days of their culture; it is the emphasis on the subdivisions that is modern. You speak now not of tulips in general, but of a particular class. The commonest bedding tulips, known as early-flowering, are both double and single and the growth is low. While their precise origin is lost in remoteness, they are supposed to have come from Tullpa suaveolens, a species from the southern part of Russia. The old tall single bedding tulips are styled late-flowering, May or cottage tulips. These range from two feet to, in some cases, the height of an ordinary walkingstick and bloom well along in May, immediately following the others which begin in April. Their parent species is T. Gesneriana. For many years they were neglected save in the British and Flemish cottage gardens whence they have been rescued, to become one of the most admired classes.

Late tulips were themselves divided some three hundred years ago into four classes breeders or self-flowers, that is to say, all of one color : bizarres, bybloemens and roses. A peculiarity of tulips is that in cultivation a seedling blooming for the first time is generally self-colored; then, after a few years they have been known to wait three decades there will be a change to a feathered state. The lower part of the petals remains as before, but there will be marginal pencilling and wide and narrow stripes or blotches. Bizarres are the ones with yellow bases and markings of red, maroon and brownish shades ; bybloemens are white, marked with purples that grade to what is called black, and roses are white with many shades of pink and red markings.

From this race has come a comparatively new one, the Darwin, which some amateurs regard as the finest of all. Certainly it is a noble race, well calculated to send into ecstasies of delight any one who has seen an exhibition of the star varieties say twenty-five specimens of each, magnificent in form and color and the stems more than two feet long. The Darwins are selfs, or nearly so; some of them are shaded, shot or edged with another tone and the centre may be white, blue or black. No tulip colors are more exquisite.

When the Darwins "break" into a lasting variegation they are known as Rembrandts. These are very strikingly blotched, striped or flamed and vie in color combinations with the bizarres, bybloemens and roses.

Parrot, or dragon, tulips are a very old class. The large blossoms have deeply toothed petals and the color variegations are extraordinarily picturesque. They remind one rather of macaws than parrots. Golden inside and the outside shaded and feathered with scarlet, purple and green is a summary of the gorgeousness of one variety. The parrot tulips bloom in May. While they are very showy, their somewhat artificial air, weak stems and irregular flowering habit have always kept them out of the foreground.

A further classification of English tulips is sometimes made. These are the old English florist tulips and are merely another group of breeders that have broken, being sub-divided into bizarres, bybloemens and roses. Then there are the tulip species, a great number of which have been brought into cultivation; there are thirty-four of them in a single English list and of these not one has been more than a rare visitor to an American garden. So it is plain that the cup of tulip happiness is being only sipped.

Of the species, a few are in the American market. The sweet-scented Florentine tulip (T. Sylvestris, or florentina) is a very pretty yellow one and the little lady tulip ( T. Clusiana) is a perfect gem. The latter, which is pale red outside and white inside, will do well in the garden if planted among stones and plant roots in light soil and a warm, sheltered place. Three red ones, T. tubergeniana, T. Greigii and T. oculus soils are all very handsome and there is an early pink or white one,
T. Kaufmanniana.

The lack of tulip education is most deplorable in the case of the cottage and Darwin tulips. Any of these, but most of all the selfs, are among the very choicest material for giving the garden beautiful May color with sharply defined individuality of form. Such cottage tulips as Glare of the Garden, Orange King, Inglescpmbe Yellow, Mrs. Moon, The Fawn and Black Chief and such Darwins as Clara Butt, Baronne de la Tonnaye, King Harold, Mrs. Krelage, Peter Barr and Mrs. Stanley are a joy to handle in the making of a garden picture.

Spring Flowers from Hyacinths

Of hyacinths there is less to be learned. Only the familiar Hyacinthus orientalis, single and double, is generally available in gardens north of Washington, but with protection it is possible to grow the dainty Roman hyacinth in the open ground near New York. What is chiefly to be learned about hyacinths proper is that it is idle to keep on in the old way of making mixed plantings ; no bulb loses more by such treatment. There is no excuse for this; named varieties of every hue, that have stood the test of time, are to be had and for low spring massing in a solid tone nothing is better. This is a more expensive plan than buying by color alone, but safer, as in the latter instance there is likely to be a conglomeration of
shades that makes for indefiniteness of tone. A third species, H. amethystinus, is a dainty alpine hyacinth that ought to be better known. There is now a white variety of it.

The feathered, grape, musk and starch hyacinths are not of the same genus ; they are muscari. One of them, M . Azureum, was formerly Hyacinthus azureus. The deep blue grape hyacinth (M. Botryoides) called bluebell in New England, is the only familiar one here and even that is much more of a stranger than it was years ago; as often as not it is an "escape" in the grass. It is fine for garden massing and so are the light blue and "pearls of Spain" (white). The Trebizond starch hyacinth Heavenly Blue has the gentian color and is very lovely in the garden. The ordinary starch hyacinth (M. Neglectum majus) and the Caucasian starch hyacinth (M. Paradoxum) are blue-black. The fragrant musk hyacinth is M. moschatum majus, the tassel hyacinth M. . Comosum and the plume or ostrich feather hyacinth M. plumosum. The last has been developed into mauve plumes of great size, worthless to the garden save as curiosities.

Spring Flowers from Daffodils and Narcissi

Old gardens knew a few kinds of narcissus. The common ones were the yellow "daffy" (N. Telemonius plenus, or van Sion) , the orange and yellow "Butter and Eggs" (N. Incomparabilis fl. Pi.) , the "jonquil" (N. Alba plena odorata) and the poet's narcissus (N. Poeticus), all but the last double. Only the first has begun to hold its own and the chief newcomer is the single yellow daffodil (N. Pseudo-narcissus), generally in only a slight improvement of the species form. 

Meanwhile daffodils than which none could ask anything more beautiful are not in every garden, though sold as low as half a dollar a dozen. Two of the best single trumpet -daffodils, Emperor (all yellow) and Empress (yellow with a white perianth) cost no more than that and will be just as satisfying to the general run of flowerlovers as costly bulbs are to the ardent British collector. The poet's narcissus and its yellow counterpart, N. incomparabilis Barrii conspicuus, which cost less than half as much, are two more of the best. And these are only four selections of cheap single kinds. The natural hybrid of the poet's narcissus, N. biflorus, is very beautiful but is more common from Delaware southward. The double white jonquil, better named now gardenia, there is a stretch of thin grass that is not cut early, naturalize some of the bulbs" daffodil, is good for massing but rather capricious as to blooming. It exceeds in beauty the four other double ones, Van Sion, "Butter and Eggs" and the remaining two incomparabilis variants, Orange Phoenix ("Eggs and Bacon") and Silver Phoenix ("Codlins and Cream").

The clustered nosegay daffodil (N. Polyanthus) has beautiful forms for the garden, but they are tender and require protection. Their poetaz hybrids are less tender. The Chinese sacred lily (N. Orientalis) is not grown in the open in cold climates. The true jonquils are hardy and it is unfortunate that they have not come to the front more. Both the campernelle jonquil (N. Odorus) and the smaller kind (N. Jonquilla) are exceedingly graceful yellow flowers. Of the small species called daffodils the hoop petticoat (Bulbocodlum citrinus) and the rushleaved B. gracilis, last of all to bloom, are deserving of close acquaintance. The angel's tear daffodil (Triandrus albus) is not very hardy.

Spring Flowers from Crocuses

The crocus is as much of a surprise as the tulip and daffodil to those who find that it is no longer merely a crocus. So many crocus species have come into cultivation that they are the subject of a very remarkable monograph. Nor do they continue to suggest only spring; there are autumnblooming and winter-blooming ones, so that in some English gardens it is possible to have crocus color from August to March without any interruption.

That is work for the collector; the thing for others to do is to get a better understanding of the superiority of the new named spring crocuses over the old. As with hyacinths, it is inexcusable to buy mixtures when there are such fine named varieties, with larger bloom, for producing sheets of early spring color at about one cent a bulb by the hundred. These improvements of C. vernus and C. aureus answer ordinary garden purposes so well that there is no special need of extending one's knowledge of the spring-blooming species.

Spring Flowers from Other Spring Bulbs

Of the host of other spring bulbs the fritillaries have two very hardy representatives that have been gradually disappearing from old gardens without being asked to enter new ones. Yet one of these, the crown imperial (Fritillaria imperialis) is a grand and stately figure in the hardy garden in spring; the yellow, orange or red bloom is rich in color and the form of the plant unique. The other is the snake's head fritillary, or guinea-hen flower (F. Meleagris). The white or nearly white kinds are best for garden pictures; the dull purple shades do not show up well at any distance. There are many other charming fritillary species, but most of them are for specialized culture.

For intense blue in March the Siberian squill (Scilla sibirica) is unrivalled unless it is by the early S. bifolia of the Taurus mountains. These two, which have white varieties, are the most desirable of the very low scilla species that are usually called squills. The taller May-flowering species are distinguished as wood hyacinths, though the
English one (S. Nutans) is better known as bluebells. This is a little more than a foot high and very handsome in the garden, as are also the taller Spanish wood hyacinth (S. Hispanica, or campanulata) and S. patula. Of the first two there are white and pink variations, but the blue type is preferable to them.

The "glory-of-the-snow" (Chionodoxa) , which has delicate blue star blossoms with a white center, is another inexpensive bulb that sadly needs recognition of its charms. It blooms in March and masses beautifully. There are several species; the one generally planted is C. Luciliae, which now has pink and white varieties.

Snowdrops would be worth planting for possible February bloom even if their little white bells were not a welcome sight at any time. The old snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) has a double form that may appeal to some; but it is inferior to the single, and neither is the equal of the giant snowdrop (G. Elwesii) for garden effect. The Crimean snowdrop ( G. plicatus) is another tall species, and there are half a dozen more if these do not offer variety enough. The somewhat similar spring snowflake (Leucojum vernum) and summer snowflake (L. Aestivum), the one blooming in April and the other in May, are hardly less useful.

Other thoroughly reliable spring bulbs are the spring star flower (Triteleia uni flora), which has deliciously fragrant bluish white blossoms; the Indian quamash (Camassia esculenta) with tall spikes of blue blossoms; the golden garlic (A Ilium Moly), which is about the last of the spring bulbs to bloom, and Pushkinia libanotica. The best star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogallum arabicum), the firecracker plant (Brodiaea coccinea), the netted iris (I. Reticulata) and the "hardy gloxinia" (Incarvillea Delavayi) are fairly hardy in the North, with protection.

Winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) responds less readily to culture in the North than any of the bulbs mentioned none of which calls for any favoring other than as stated in a few instances. Sometimes there is a moist place in a garden under a shrub; there, perhaps, the green foliage tufts and yellow blossoms will show themselves in March or April. The bulbs are cheap.

With coddling still more spring bulbs are possibilities in the North, but are materially less risky propositions to the southward. Several of the windflowers that are so beautiful in England every spring, such as Anemone coronaria, A. fulgens, A. St. Brigid, A. hortensis, A. blanda, A. apennina and A. nemorosa Robinsoniana, are among these so are Gladiolus Colvillei, the early species that is forced in quantities; the little known but very beautiful deep blue Ixiolirion tataricum, the showy red amaryllis-like Habranthus pratensis and the gorgeous single and double forms of Asiatic ranunculi. Here is a list that ought to be drawn on more in the nearer South.

All of the spring bulbs, of course, are planted the preceding autumn generally in October. Only the tulip, hyacinth, narcissus and crocus are very well adapted for general formal planting. For such planting place hyacinths six inches apart, tulips, four, daffodils three and the crocus and other small bulbs two. But with any spring bulb the most satisfactory planting is informal. Use clumps and drifts and aim for effects with a few good varieties, so far as the garden proper is concerned. Other varieties may be colonized here and there in the shrubberies. Combine a May tulip with a perennial rather than with another variety so as to secure marked form as well as color contrast.

Small or large clumps of tulips (selfs) , hyacinths, narcissus, and almost any of the little bulbs are very effective when scattered irregularly through the hardy garden. Use the imposing crown imperial only when it can be insured permanency of location; it dislikes being disturbed. The little bulbs, however, are best colonized under deciduous shrubs where a great many kinds can be grown in unutilized space and left to themselves for years. Some of them, especially scillas, spread rapidly by self-sown seed. If there is a stretch of thin grass that is not cut very early, naturalize some of the Kulbs; single trumpet daffodils, Tulipa sylvestris, May-blooming tulips (selfs), grape hyacinths, snowdrops, scillas, guinea-hen flower and crocus are all willing subjects.

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