FLOWER GARDEN

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21280, 25 February 1939, Page 15

FLOWER GARDEN

BULB-PLANTING Though it is no advantage to keep bulbs such as daffodils out of the ground, for various reasons the planting Is seldom carried out before autumn, and the present is a very suitable season. Daffodils are grown in mixed borders, shrubbery borders, and in the grass, and where the latter method can be adopted it is the least trouble and the most satisfactory. There are two methods of planting, one being to scatter the bulbs in drifts, if passible keeping the varieties together, and the other is to plant in groups of five at a distance of from two to three feet apart. When planting in drifts use a bulb planter, which is a tool which removes a piece of turf to a depth of about four inches. A little bone meal is put in the bottom of the hole, then the bulb, and the piece of turf replaced and tramped down level. When planting in groups a piece of turf about nine inches square is removed, the soil is stirred up with a spade, a handful of bone meal put in, and the bulbs planted in fives. The piece of turf is replaced and tramped down firmly. When the ground is rolled it is difficult to see were the planting has been done until the bulbs begin to make their appearance in the spring. When planting in openings in the shrubbery border groups of from five to 50 can be planted at from four to six inches apart and four inches deep, a little bone meal being worked in while planting. For exhibition purposes it is better to plant in beds of well-drained soil, the bulbs being planted in rows across the beds six to nine Inches between the bulbs and 12 inches between the rows.

Tulips and hyacinths are usually planted in groups in the mixed border or in beds by themselves with a suitable carpeting plant, such as forget-me-nots, aubretia, alyssum, violas, or primrose polyanthus. The bulbs are planted at from nine to 12 inches apart and four inches deep. Tulips are very effective when planted in rose beds, the conditions provided for the roses being suitable for the tulips, and as they flower after the roses are pruned and before they make much new growth they provide a display in the

rose garden when it would be otherwise dull and uninteresting. Crocus, the yellow, blue, white, and striped, are among the first of the spring flowers to appear, and they are very suitable for planting as edgings for shrubbery or herbaceous borders, or grouping in the rock garden or a rocky bank. Small bulbs such as Scilla siberlca, Chionodoxas, and grape hyacinths are very suitable for carpeting rose or shrubbery beds, or as edgings for herbaceous or shrubbery borders where they can remain undisturbed for several years. They are planted at four to six inches apart and three inches deep. Anemones and ranunculus are most suitable for massing in beds or borders or for edging shrubbery borders. They like good soil, and have no objections to manure which has been dug in for a previous lot of plants. They are planted three inches deep at from nine to 12 inches apart, and, though dry tubers can be planted at any time the sooner they are in the ground the better. Seedling anemones which were planted a month ago are now well through the ground.