30 THE GARDENER. [Jan. 



THE GLADIOLUS. 



As a warm lover of this beautiful autumnal flower, and as one of those 

 who have written something about it, I should like to say a few words 

 on the paper by Mr Morris in your last number, inasmuch as while he has 

 been evidently successful in his own cultivation, he is rather sweeping 

 in his condemnation of those whose experiences are of a less happy 

 character. 



With regard to the statement, that wherever there is loss, it is 

 occasioned by some carelessness in the management of the bulbs — I 

 must really demur to this, not so much as a vindication of myself 

 as of others. Without doubt, the best Gladiolus-grower we have in 

 the south of England, perhaps in England at all, is Mr Kelway of 

 Layport, in Somersetshire. Last year he grew 50,000 bulbs, and told 

 me he had not a single diseased bulb amongst them, while this year, 

 under precisely the same treatment, he had a large quantity of bulbs 

 so affected ; and my excellent friend, M. Souchet, tells me that this 

 year he has an appreciable loss from disease, and I suppose Mr 

 Morris would hardly say he is careless in the growth or manage- 

 ment of his bulbs. My own opinion is that it is a disease, somewhat 

 analogous to the Potato disease ; that it may be increased by bad 

 management, but that no amount of care can ward it off. 



With regard to manuring, I quite agree with Mr Morris that no 

 fresh dung ought to come in contact with the bulbs ; but I could 

 secure this more effectually than he has done by placing a good layer 

 of cow-dung beneath the soil, and not incorporate it in any way with it ; 

 in fact, treating it similarly with the mode adopted in the case of the 

 Persian Ranunculus, and so allowing the rootlets to penetrate into the 

 layer of cow-dung, and to draw their sustenance from it when most 

 they require such a stimulus. I have tried it this year, and am so 

 pleased with the result that I shall adopt it for the future. 



Mr Morris is assuredly mistaken as to the injury occasioned by cut- 

 ting off the haulm when it is green. He may, of course, easily find 

 reasons why such a practice is bad, as I have known doctors ready to 

 find out reasons for the most diametrically opposite practice in cases*of 

 medical treatment ; but I can tell him this, that those imported bulbs 

 which he holds up as models are all treated in this way. I have seen 

 acres of them taken up, without any discrimination as to one being 

 riper than another, and I may add that, when left too long in the 

 ground, they are liable to throw out fresh roots, which detracts from the 

 strength of the bulb. My own bulbs are treated in this way, and 

 although I do not pretend to be a better grower than my neighbours, I 

 can speak confidently of the health of my bulbs, both last season and 



