Flowering Bulbs Indoors and Out

This volume includes some passages so basic that any but the most black-thumbed reader may well be taken aback. According to James ( The Potpourri Gardener , Landscaping: A Five-Year Plan ), no one should plant bulbs without first making a scale plan of the garden on graph paper; for those who don't know, he describes graph paper and where to purchase it (!). Although noting that rules are made to be broken, he states that at least one-fourth of a bulb planting should be white and that most experienced gardeners avoid using orange in their color schemes--which knocks out growing some of the more spectacular Asiatic lilies and crown imperials. On the positive side, the author includes extensive lists of commonly available bulbs, with detailed information on their care, propagation, diseases and pests (particularly rodents, in the case of hardy bulbs). Suggestions on perennials to grow with bulbs are uninspired, and aspects of the chart on perennial bloom times are inaccurate for USDA zones 5 and colder. Mail-order sources are listed for bulbs and perennials; the latter list, with only two entries, is puny. Photos not seen by PW . (Sept.)