EARLY SPRING GAR-
DENS MADE FRA-
GRANT AND COLOR-
FUL WITH FLOWER-
ING BULBS
HEN the bulbous plants
         break through the crust
         of winter, then Spring,
evasive, whimsical and wild in her
ways, cannot be gainsaid. She
claims a welcome as snowdrops,
crocuses and squills are in bloom
and myriads of green spikes push
through the earth, calling the
eager to watch their miraculous
growth until they unfold their
flowers. The snowdrop foreruns
the procession. As the spirit of
the snow, it hangs its frail, bell-
like flower while patches of ice
still cling to the ground. A tiny


THREE TYPES OF TULIPS: TULIPA VITELLINA, ISA- ghosk i p      by
BELLA AND GOLDEN CROWN: SIMILAR AND YET ghotlike thing uphelb    the
DISSIMILAR AS THE CHILDREN OF ONE FAMILY.  bosom of the earth, it knows no
fear, but gives freely of its beauty, then dies leaving in its offshoots
the assuredness of reappearance the following season. The snowdrop
never appears in any garb but white, and thus clad it tests the tem-
perature of early March, fragile yet courageous. There are two
varieties of snowdrops, the small one blooming first, Galanthus nivalis,
and its larger, double-flowered relative, Galanthus Elwesii, a native
of Asia-Minor, which opens two weeks later. By planting both
varieties of these bulbs in the autumn a succession of bloom can be
gained for the spring.
   Then before the snowdrops have passed, the earth opens to let
through the crocuses, a merry band of funnel-shaped, stemless flowers,
occurring in colors seen in the spring sky and in the mists that cling
to the lowlands. White, lavender, blue, besides a deep purple are
among their colors; although by far the cheeriest of all are the yellow
ones affording as gladsome a sight as the spring dandelions, miniature
suns on young grass, emerald green.
    Many people plant yellow crocuses exclusively, naturalizing them
 in the grass, in flower beds and borders and covering with them fore-
 grounds of evergreen shrubs. Myriads of crocuses are thus planted
 through the lawns of different estates in this country where they
 522