THE MANTEL-PIECE GARDEN.
Plants which will do for it.--Choice of Flower Bulbs.--Hyacinths
blooming under the Water.--Disposition of the Vases for
this Experiment.--Planting the Bulbs.--Hyacinths forced,
in Water.--Jonquil.--Crocus.--Van Tholl Tulips.--Flower
Pots for the Garden on the Mantel-piece.--Care of the Bulbs
after Flowering.--Separating the Tufts of Crocus.--Vanilla
Tussilago.[2]--Hepaticas.
You have no idea, ladies, of the amount of instructive and agreeable
hints I am to give you in this chapter: its title is not in the least
deceptive; you can really make for yourself a garden, without any other
place at your disposal than your mantel-piece. I take for granted, that
you will begin in good time to kindle your fires, and that they will be
kept up until spring has fully taken possession of the outer atmosphere.
On this condition, there will be no disappointment for you, in the
resources that your garden on the mantel-piece will afford.
Choice of Flowering Bulbs.
By the end of September, the evenings in some of the states are cool;
a little fire is indispensable after sunset. It is now time to procure
good roots of hyacinths, crocuses, Van Tholl tulips, and jonquil. You
must not choose the largest among these bulbs, which are not always the
best by a great deal; but those of medium size of their species--firm,
smooth, shining, free from spots or bruises, and from softness. Those
which give premature signs of vegetation ought to be rejected.
A Hyacinth blooming under Water.
Having made your choice among the brightest shades of blue, red, and
yellow, you must give your greatest care to a charming experiment
which will be the source of a very agreeable amusement for you all
the winter. You can procure, at a small expense, two vases of plain,
clear, uncolored glass; both of the same form, except that one has no
bottom, and is a little smaller than the other. They are to be used
as follows: Put into the one that is open at both ends one of the
finest of your hyacinth roots; suppose you take one of a fine red--a
sultan Soliman for instance; place this bulb in a position inverse to
its natural position, that is, with the bottom up, and the top, from
which the leaves and flowers are to come, downwards, even with the
orifice at the bottom of the vase. Then you must crumble a mixture of
good garden earth and leaf mould over the bulb until the vase is three
quarters full. A second bulb with a flower in strong contrast to the
first, say a blue if the flower of the first is red, and _vice versa_,
must be next placed in the vase, so that the top shall be even with the
upper orifice. You have nothing more to do than to place the vase thus
prepared upon the first vase, full of water.
Two similar couples look very well, placed upon the two ends of the
mantel-piece of a room in which people habitually sit, and where,
consequently, fire is constantly made while the cold season lasts.
The earth in the upper vase should be moderately watered as soon as
the bulbs are placed in it, and then kept constantly moist, avoiding
excess, by renewed watering whenever you perceive that the earth is
getting dry.
At the end of two days, the crowns of the two bulbs will both send out
straight, white roots; those of the reversed bulb turn down in curves,
but do not fulfil their functions worse for that. Very soon the two
bulbs placed in a contrary position to each other put forth leaves--the
one into the air, the other in the water; then you will see appear
in the midst of the transparent liquid the buds on the floral stalk,
and finally the flowers, as beautiful, as well formed, of as rich a
color, surrounded by leaves of as fine a green as the corresponding
parts possess, of the other flower planted in the ordinary manner, and
vegetating and developing in the air, its natural element. It is true
that time is necessary for all this to be accomplished: bulbs planted
in October will flower fully in February or March; but is it not a
pleasure to watch day by day the phases of their development, above
all that of the hyacinth which ends by blooming in the water, head
downwards?
Hyacinths forced in Water.
While these curious phenomena in vegetation are being accomplished,
you should place other hyacinth roots in bulb glasses, either blue
or colorless, of the form adapted to this purpose, which you must
not fail to keep constantly filled with water, so that the liquid
shall be even with the crown--that is, with the edge of the flat part
of the bulb--without ever passing it. For filling these glasses, as
for watering the earth where the bulbs grow one above the other, one
upright and the other reversed,--remember that you must use only water
of the temperature of your room. Without this precaution you will spoil
all, and the bloom of your bulbs will be miserable.
Jonquil--Crocus.
The roots of the jonquil should be treated like the hyacinth
roots,--using pure water. As you cannot count with certainty on the
blooming of all roots, it is prudent to put at least three in the same
glass--placing them on a flat, thin, round piece of wood with three
holes cut in it. They bloom at the same time with the hyacinths. In
the spaces between the glasses containing the bulbous plants nourished
by nothing but water, place pots full of earth, mixed half and half
with garden manure; leaf mould would not be strong enough. Plant in
these crocus bulbs, taking care to group in the same pot the varieties
of fine colors--pure white, white striped with violet, and plain
violet. The flowers of these plants, which precede the development of
their leaves, contrast agreeably, by the vividness of their colors,
with the pale yellow of the jonquil.
Van Tholl Tulips.
Other pots like the first, and filled with the same mixture, must have
in them roots of the Van Tholl tulips, a charming little tulip with a
dwarf stem and petals of a bright red bordered with golden yellow. All
these flowers develop at the same time, presenting a happy variety of
forms and shades in the bloom of a mantel-piece garden, whilst Nature
is at work without, preparing her more abundant supply of flowers in
the open air.
Flower Pots for the Mantel-piece Garden.
Whatever may be your taste for elegance, believe in the experience of
an old gardener, and never plant your crocuses and Van Tholl tulips
on your mantel-piece in any thing else than the ordinary earthenware
flower pots, which cost a few cents, varying in price according to
their size. Conceal their coarse surfaces with coverings of glazed
paper, folded and cut at their upper edge, and place under each pot a
porcelain saucer; and this is the utmost extent you can be permitted
to go in sacrifices to elegance. If you plant these poor bulbs in rich
vases of varnished sheet iron or porcelain, painted and gilt, they will
languish, and your hopes will be completely deceived; for they will
bloom badly, or not bloom at all. The porous nature of the ordinary
earthenware flower pots is perfectly well adapted to the vegetation
of the roots of ornamental plants. If you place these roots in iron
or porcelain, you will not obtain, however sedulous your care, any
satisfactory result; no more in the garden on the mantel-piece than
elsewhere.
Care of Bulbs after the Bloom is over.
Bulbs which have vegetated in water do not necessarily perish after
blooming. Do not wait until their leaves turn yellow and fade before
you take them out of the water. When you have done this, let them drip
well; cut off the fibrous roots, the leaves, and the flower stalk, and
place them in a drawer where they will be protected from moisture.
The next year, those which have not turned soft should be planted in
earth, out in the open air, that they may recover if they have strength
enough to do so, or to give offsets or young bulbs to replace them in
time. The bulbs which were planted in earth will not have suffered in
any manner from having been forced in the mantel-piece garden. Before
taking them out of the earth, you must wait until their leaves are half
turned yellow after they have bloomed; then let them lose, by drying in
the air, a part of the moisture they had while vegetating; after which
clean them and put them away with the others; they will serve perfectly
a second or third time for the same sort of culture.
If you like crocuses,--and if you do not, you are too hard to please,
for there is not a spring flowering plant fresher or prettier than
the crocus,--you must continue to water them after the bloom. Their
leaves, of a fine green marked throughout their length with a white
line, will not be amiss as part of the decoration of your mantel-piece
garden. When the leaves begin to turn yellow, you must cease entirely
to water them; but you must not take up the crocus roots. They must be
left in the dry earth until next year. They will keep there very well,
surrounded by their young family; for they produce every year a certain
number of little ones, which will bloom in their first spring. These
bulbs ought only to be taken up every three years, and then for the
purpose of separating the clusters; without which the pots would be too
full--there would not be nourishment for the whole family. When managed
in this manner, the tufts of forced crocuses are more beautiful the
second year than the first, and still more beautiful the third year;
after which you must renew the plantings.
The very easy gardening, of which we have just described the process,
will bring you to the fine weather; and then, if you go to the country
to pass the summer, the mantel-piece may remain widowed of its garden
until autumn. But if you remain, you may put upon the mantel-piece some
of your prettiest flowers, whenever you have too many for your balcony.
They will there require attentions of which we will tell you in the
part of this work particularly devoted to the garden at the window.
Vanilla Tussilago--Hepaticas.
Has your mantel-piece room enough to admit of two or three
supplementary pots? Then put there--if you are not afraid of sweet,
penetrating perfumes, a pot of vanilla tussilago. The flower is ugly,
but of an odor equal to that of the sweetest orchises, and it does not
affect the head.
If you are afraid of odors, even the delicate and inoffensive,
substitute for the vanilla tussilago rose-colored and blue hepaticas,
which are charming in form and color, and have no perfume. With these
resources there is abundant material to give you a taste for the
culture of flowers in the mantel-piece garden. The vanilla tussilago
and the hepatica are flowers of a most accommodating disposition;
nothing more is necessary to them than half a glass of water every
two days, and for the temperature of your chamber to be such as suits
yourself.