Retail price list of California bulbs / Carl Purdy

              SELECT BULBS FOR FALL PLANTING
MAY-FLOWEMNG TULIPS, continued
few minutes each evening, wetting the surface and leaving the under-soil half dry;
but, at intervals of a few days, giving good soakings. I have found a mulch of half-
rotted manure, put on before the Tulips come through the ground, a most excellent
thing. When I want the finest flowers, I dissolve nitrate of soda to make a saturated
solution and dilute it to one-quarter strength. This I sprinkle on the soil every few
days as the buds swell, and wash in with pure water. Not all of this trouble is necessary
to have good flowers, but the observance of each point improves them.
All late Tulips can be planted in the borders with perennials or low shrubs, if
their situation is carefully marked so that they will not be dug into. But the best
arrangement is to plant in beds 3 to 4 feet wide, and to lift, when ripe, each season.
Collection of Late Tulips
I make a collection of late Tulips consisting of ten bulbs each of ten named varieties,
my own choice, from the following list. As I have included in this list none but most
excellent varieties, the value given is most satisfactory, and I am happy to say that
my customers have realized this and bought this collection most liberally. The 100-
bulb lot, $2.25.  Five each of the same set, $1.25.
In REDS and SCARLETS I offer Gesneriana major, which is really the very best of
all Late Tulips.: The color is a glowing scarlet, with a blue-black eye, and the stems are
often 22 inches high. See No. 1, on back cover. Fulgens is clear deep red, with pointed
petals, and it will be just as much of a favorite when it is better known.
Gorgeous is the only word for La Merveille (The Marvel); first orange-red and then
a rare shade of red. Similar in color, but more like Major in habit, is Gesneriana auran-
tiaca, the orange Gesneriana, a grand flower; and Macrospeila, another form of Gesneriana, is deep blood-red, with showy black eye; in the sun no Tulip outshines it. The
price of all these splendid Tulips is 3 cts. each, 30 cts. per doz., $2.25 per 100.
While I include it among the reds, Le Reve is a most exquisite pink, tinged with
orange; I offer it at 8 cts. each, 80 cts. per doz.
YELLOWS: In yellows I offer four fine varieties.
Gesneriana Iutea is a golden Gesneriana, although
not quite so tall; for price see Retroflexa; Parisian
Yellow (No. 4, see back cover) is perhaps the best
yellow, and its price is 4 cts. each, 40 cts. per doz.,
$2.75 per 100.  Moonlight is clear yellow.   I sell it
for 15 cts. each.   Bouton d'Or is golden, tall, stiff-
stemmed, and makes a fine color-mass when cut,
although smaller-flowered than the others.    It is
cheap at 3 cts^ each, 25 cts. per doz., $2 per  100.
Retroflexa is a light canary-yellow, long-stemmed, large-flowered,
and   with  reflexed petals.   Both
Retroflexa and Gesneriana Iutea
are 4 cts. each, 40 cts. per doz.,
$3 per 100.
SCARLET AND GOLD: The
preceding Tulips have all been in
solid colors.  Golden Crown, with
a body of rich yellow, penciled with scarlet, finally
becomes a sort of old-gold throughout.   Dwarf.    I
sell it at 3 cts. each, 25 cts. per doz., $2 per 100.
WHITE AND PINK: Still prettier is Picotee,
which opens light cream, lightly penciled with pink,
and becomes pure white suffused throughout with
pink. 3 cts. each, 30 cts. per doz., $2 per 100. See
No. 3, back cover. Dame Eleganti is a superb
Tulip, pure white, irregularly slashed with scarlet,
tall and brilliant.   40 cts. per doz., or $3 per 100.
BROWN AND VARIEGATED: The Bizarres
are really forms of Darwin Tulips, having a dark
mahogany-brown, richly striped in other shades.
They correspond in brown to the Rembrandts in
lighter colors. These are 3 cts. each 25 cts. per doz.,
$2 per 100. Picotee Tulips