BULBS MORE BEAUTIFUL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 April 1939, Page 2

BULBS MORE BEAUTIFUL

WHEN GROWN IN NATURAL SURROUNDINGS. Most of our spring bulbs are far more beautiful when viewed in their natural surroundings among the grass in woodlands or wild gardens than when planted, however naturally and artistically, in borders. Most of them, too, especially daffodils, crocuses and scillas, do much better in this natural state than in beds or borders, where they are constantly being disturbed. Do not plant them on the lawns, as the grass cannot be cut until the leaves of the bulbs have turned yellow and dried up, which means an untidy lawn for a considerable period, and when cut suffers from the necessary neglect in the spring and early summer. Another word of caution, do not plant daffodils in pasture land for they are, or sometimes are, poisonous to cattle. Bulbs to be naturalised in grass are best planted in long, narrow, oval strips some 30ft to 49ft in length, shaped like patches of snow driven by the wind into long slender drifts on the ground. They should be scattered on the grass over an area shaped as above so that they lie thicker towards the centre of the “drift,’ and should be planted with a trowel Or bulb planter just where they fall. There should be no regular, welldefined margin to the “drift”; the edges should be indistinct and merging gradually in the surrounding grass. March and April is the best planting time. Small bulbs, like the crocus and scilla. should be set some 3 inches apart, while daffodil bulbs should have about 6 inches between them. Bulbs that have been used for beds and borders are equally as good as new bulbs for naturalising in grass and should be replanted immediately after being lifted from the beds and while their foliage is still green and succulent. Although they will not carry the number of flowers that new bulbs would have done in their first year, they will soon recover and produce their blooms freely from year to year. Some seven years at least may be allowed to elapse before it is necessary to disturb naturalised bulbs, provided they receive an annual top-dressing of leafmould each autumn.