Bulbous Plants for Cold Greenhouses.
How often one hears complaints as to the lack of flowers during the coldest months of the year. And how often one sees, in almost empty greenhouses, bare shelves that could be made gay with blossom, and with but little labour or expense. This can be done easily enough by selecting early flowering bulbs, and having them "potted up" early in the autumn, so that they will have made plenty of roots by, say, Christmas time. The pots most generally useful are 5-inch ones (often called 48's). These should have some broken pieces put in the bottom for drainage, and over this a layer of moss or fibre to prevent the soil from choking it up later on. A compost made up of three parts of rich fibrous loam, one part of silver or river sand, and one part of leaf-soil, all well mixed, should be prepared. A handful or two is placed over the drainage, and one, two, three, or five bulbs, according to size, may then be placed on a level bottom. The pot is then filled to within about a quarter of an inch of the rim, the soil being firmly pressed down between the bulbs, the tops of which may be either level with the surface or beneath it. In any case, it is not necessary to bury bulbs that are going to have the protection of a greenhouse so deep as those planted in the open air, where they will have no protection from the weather.
The bulbs, having been potted, and labelled if necessary, say sometime in October or November, need not be taken into the greenhouse at once. It is better to keep them in the open air, covered with two or three inches of fine ashes or coco-nut fibre until the bulbs have made plenty of new roots in the soil, or they may be sheltered in a cold frame. Any time after this, as many pots as may be required are taken out of the ashes or fibre, the remains of which should be washed from the pots and shaken off the surface of the soil. If there is a slight warmth in the greenhouse, just enough to keep the frost out on cold nights, so much the better, but too much heat is unnecessary, unless one wishes to "force" bulbs into very early bloom. This, however, generally means exhaustion, if not death, to the bulbs so artificially treated.
There are many kinds of bulbous plants suitable for the decoration of cold greenhouses in winter and early spring in the way indicated, and the following may be regarded as a good selection:—Bulbocodiums, Chionodoxas, Crocuses (Spring), Erythroniums, Fritillarias (dwarf), Snowdrops, Hyacinths, Snowflakes, Grape Hyacinths, Dwarf Narcissi, Puschkinias, Scillas, Sternbergia Fischeriana, Bulbous Irises, Tecophilæa—all of which are described in their respective places in this work.