The Children's Book of GardeningSidgwick, Alfred, Mrs.
General
The Children's Book of Gardening
Sidgwick, Alfred, Mrs.
Children's gardens; Gardening -- Juvenile literature
If possible, when you replant your bulbs, give them a fresh place—or,
at any rate, fresh soil. When you cut your Daffodils, never cut many
leaves from one plant, because the bulb receives nourishment through
its leaves. The flowers may be gathered when in bud, and will come out
well and increase in size in water. Many people always send Daffodils
by post in bud, as they travel better, take less room, and last longer.
Besides, a mixture of fully-open and half-open Daffodils is like spring
itself, and gives you pleasure as they change and expand. But the
growers tell us that the shops and markets will not buy them in this
state, and insist on having the flowers in full bloom.
The Polyanthus-Narcissus has several flowers on one stalk, and it
is very fragrant. There are several varieties, and in the South and
West of England they are all hardy. In the sheltered parts of Cornwall
and the Scilly Isles they come into flower before Christmas, and all
through January you see fields of them opening their buds in the winter
sun. If you live in a cold part of England, you must give them a
sheltered corner and plenty of sand in the soil. Three good kinds are
Soleil d’Or, a bright yellow; Grand Monarque, white and pale yellow;
and Gloriosa, white and orange. The Polyanthus-Narcissus does better
than other kinds in a stiff soil, and it likes a little manure.
The variety of Daffodils in a bulb list is bewildering, but you must
learn enough about the leading kinds to choose, for instance, whether
you want a huge yellow trumpet, a hoop petticoat, a star, a double,
or one of those enchanting tiny ones that would get lost in a mixed
border, and must be given a choice corner in your rockery. In this
chapter we will give you the names of a few well-known and inexpensive
kinds that are effective in a mixed border. When you plant them in this
way amongst other flowers, you can put six in a clump, three inches
apart and three to five inches deep. They should be placed eighteen
inches from the path, well behind your Snowdrops, Crocuses, and dwarf
Alpines. You may like to choose those that flower late, and put them
near pale blue Hyacinths or deep orange Tulips. In that case, buy
Emperor, Empress, or Bicolor. The earliest trumpet Daffodil is Sir
Henry Irving; Golden Spur comes a little later. Bicolor Grandis is what
the catalogues call ‘the best all-round Daffodil’; Sir Watkin is ‘a
giant of noble appearance’; and Horsfieldi is pure white and yellow,
the finest of the early Bicolors. All these are single Daffodils.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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