The time for planting of hardy perennials and shrubbery is optional with the gardener, many things doing quite as well when planted at one season as at another, but in the planting of spring blooming bulbs less latitude exists; these must be gotten into the ground in fall if any measure of success is desired. The handling of this class of plants is one of the luxuries of gardening, as they come all ready to commence root growth, but in a perfect dormant condition, and may be gotten into the ground very much at one's convenience, and regardless of weather; the earlier they are planted the stronger root growth they will be able to make before the ground freezes, which makes for stronger bloom in the spring.

Crocus, scillas, narcissi, daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and the like may be planted from the time283 they can be procured from the florist (which is usually in September) until the ground freezes. They will grow and bloom to perfection in any good, well-drained garden soil, providing it is not infested by moles and ground mice but beware of these, as they seem to possess an insatiable appetite for bulbs and once they have entered a bed will seldom leave it until they have exhausted its resources.

I recall that a few years ago I planted, in an empty canna bed on the front lawn, some five hundred choice, named tulips. The following spring just three tulip plants appeared above ground—the moles having destroyed the other four hundred and ninety-seven. In the flower garden where other hundreds of bulbs had been used to border beds of hardy perennials, they fared somewhat better, the greater part coming up, but many had been destroyed and still others carried far from the place of their planting, coming up as much as three feet away in the middle of paths and in sod.

One of the most satisfactory ways of using284 tulips is to plant them as a border to beds of perennials or shrubs, setting them in single, double or triple rows, along the edge and leaving them to ripen and increase from year to year; in this way one gets the greatest good at the least expenditure of time and space. When they are planted in beds by themselves it is customary to lift them when through blooming and to heel them in some out-of-the-way spot until the tops have died when they may be lifted and stored in paper bags until time to plant out again in the fall. This leaves the beds free for summer annuals or bedding plants. If it is not desired to lift them, then one may sow seed of some annual of light root growth such as the myostis or forget-me-not, the schizanthus, pansy, verbena, or phlox Drumondii, as these plants will not interfere with the maturing of the bulbs and the protection afforded them from the heat of summer will be of benefit.

The soil for any variety of bulbs should be rich, mellow and thoroughly well drained and it is285 better in planting any but the smallest bulbs to remove a few inches of the top soil and having leveled off the surface mark it in straight lines from side to side each way so that the lines cross each other and set a bulb at each intersection of the lines. For tulips the lines s............