The early Tulips are the most prized for pot-culture, but the others may be used also, although not generally so amenable to forcing. They should be planted at the rate of from three to five bulbs in a five-inch pot, according to the size of the bulbs. After planting, the pots should be plunged in ashes or cocoa-fibre until they have made root-growth, when they may be brought in as required and subjected to gentle forcing. Watering must be carefully attended to at this time. When a number of flowers are required for jardinettes, etc., the Tulips may be grown closely together in boxes. When they show colour, they may be lifted with roots intact, and planted in moss in the receptacles in which they are required.
[Illustration: TULIPS CARPETED BY ARABIS]
The most valuable Tulips for early work are the early Dutch varieties, many of which are very beautiful and embrace much variety of colour. The varieties of Duc Van Thol and Pottebakker are largely used for early bloom, but other good varieties are Bacchus, Canary Bird, Keizerskroon, Mon Tresor, and Proserpine. Following these are the popular Artus, Cottage Maid, Crimson King, and many others. As, however, almost all the bulb-dealers give the blooming periods in their lists, it would only take up space unnecessarily to detail them. A special selection of the best for pot work or for forcing would include such varieties as the Duc Van Thols, Couleur de Cardinal, Globe de Rigaut, Keizerskroon, the Pottebakkers, Royal Standard, and Samson, all reliable bloomers where they are properly cultivated.
Double Tulips last a little longer in bloom, but they do not lend themselves so well to the decoration of the garden, and many people do not care for their rather heavy-looking blooms. Good varieties for pots and forcing are Artus, Brutus, Duchess of Parma, Proserpine, Rose tendre, Thomas Moore, and Van der Neer. For bedding there are Cramoisie superbe, La Candeur, Murillo, Rex Rubrorum, and Titian, besides a number more. Variegated leaved Tulips are pretty in beds, even before the blooming time, but they are not much grown in this country.
The "Cottage Garden" Tulips grow yearly in favour, and they deserve it because of their beauty and their general hardiness, which enables the greater number to be permanent border flowers. There are a great many of much beauty, and a brief selection is necessarily incomplete. It includes the curious acuminata, Didieri, elegans, Faerie Queen, flava, Gala Beauty, gesneriana, Golden Beauty, Golden Crown, ixioides, macrospila, maculata, Picotee, retroflexa, sylvestris major, vitellina, and York and Lancaster.