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The Early Bulb Order
A LITTLE exclamation of surprise always accompanies the first bulb catalogue of the season that one takes out of the mail bag. "What! Bulb catalogues beginning to arrive already? Can it be possible?" For tulip-planting time seems a long way off when one is beset with the pressing garden needs of spring and it is a great temptation to let one's bulb list slip by until some later date. Many are the advantages, however, to be gained from early ordering.
Most bulb firms offer great inducements to customers who will place their orders before late June or early July, as this enables them to figure more accurately upon their own import orders. So, if one is ordering bulbs in any quantity, it is wise to avail one's self of these early prices, as the same bulbs will usually be selling for considerably more in the autumn. Then, too, if the order is left until a late date one is very apt to find that some varieties, perhaps some choice ones that are greatly desired, have been sold out and are no longer obtainable.
Another great satisfaction that comes with placing an early order is that one is able to make up lists while bulbs are still in bloom and one can check up accurately on desirable colors and forms instead of trying to recall, months afterward, whether Rev. H. Ewbank is a better lavender tulip than Valentin, or what narcissus it was that made such a delightful combination with the forget-me-nots.
THE SELECTION OF BULBS FOR THE SMALL GARDEN Such tempting things do the bulb catalogues offer! There are long lists of narcissus, still longer lists of tulips, and whole pages given over to hyacinths and other bulbs. With the new introductions that are being put on the market each year the lists are growing constantly longer and more formidable, and the amateur gardener or the possessor of a small bit of garden ground is destined to find the selection of a few varieties a bewildering task.
If one has but a small garden, a garden where every inch of ground is precious, one feels that selection should be made with care. Certainly there must be a few of the very early harbingers of spring-some snowdrops, winter aconites, grape hyacinths, squills, and crocuses. Somehow these shy little heralds of spring seem to meet a very special need in one's gardening soul. Perhaps the first to be found is a little winter aconite, such a wee, winsome thing with its little cup of gold and its Elizabethan ruff of green leaves. It is so very small and yet so courageous, venturing into bloom before there is even a hint of spring in the air. It usually precedes the snowdrops by a few days or at least appears with them, and in that little golden cup it seems to hold the very promise of spring!