13S 



HORTICULTURE 



February 14. 1920 



CROSS-FERTILIZING GLADIOLI. 



H. C. Meader Tells How It Is Done. 



Editor HORTICLLTURE, 



Dear Sir: — For several years I have 

 been looking for some reliable infor- 

 mation on the cross-fertilizing of the 

 gladiolus, and I wish that you would 

 send me through Hokticulittbe some 

 brief information on this subject. 



I would like to know if there are 

 any special rules such as when to take 

 pollen from any special flower and also 

 how to transfer it. 



I have read articles telling how cer- 

 tain flowers of colors, cross-fertilized 

 together will make other flowers of 

 certain colors, but I have never run 

 across any information such as special 

 rules, etc. H. F. P. 



To successfully cross two varieties 

 of the gladiolus a clear sunny day 

 should be selected. Some provide 

 themselves with pollen brushes, scis- 

 sors, cheesecloth, etc., the operation is 

 quite simple and may be perfectly suc- 

 cessful when performed with the bare 

 hands; no tools are necessary. 



Remove the stamens (polleubearers) 

 by cutting or pinching out, from the 

 flower you wish to be the seedbearer, 

 or female parent. This prevents self 

 fertilization. 



Ordinarily from about 10 o'clock in 

 the forenoon to five in the afternoon, 

 the pistil opens or flattens out and 

 exudes a sticky heavy liquid which 

 moistens its surface. 



Arriving at this stage the flower is 

 receptive and ready to be pollenated, 

 which is done by cutting or carefully 

 pinching out the stamen from the 

 other parent and gently brushing the 

 Pollen over the sticky and receptive 

 stigma of the seed parent. 



To assure success the pollen must 

 be powdery and well ripened, and if 

 all goes well, the flower will almost 

 immediately wilt and close in its 

 petals, the lite giving principle travels 

 down the stem and fertilizes the im- 

 mature seed in the pod and growth 

 commences. 



Seed should be gathered when the 

 pod turns brown and starts to crack 

 open. Nothing is gained by allowing 

 the pod to open fully on the stalk as 

 the seed is mature when opening 

 starts. 



If left too long ungathered many of 

 the finest seed will have blown away. 

 When seed is harvested it should be 

 kept in a warm dry place to thorough- 

 ly cure, and can then be sown at once 

 or kept for several years without 

 losing its vitality. 



I have discovered through experi- 

 ments covering a long i)eriod that seed 

 may be harvested in November, cured 

 and sown indoors in greenhouse. 

 Have gathered the tiny bulbs in 

 March, cured them perfectly in dry 

 sand left in a warm place, then in 

 early May planted them out in the 

 open ground. 



-Many will bloom, if treated this way, 

 the same year, and the increase will 

 be about the same as the ordinary 

 growth of two seasons. When freshly 

 planted, gladiolus seed should be kept 

 quite moist and not allowed to dry 

 out until well up. 



It is entirely unnecessary to rub off 

 the wings or membrane from the seed 

 before planting, as some do. The grow- 

 ing of gladioli from seed is a most 

 fascinating pursuit as no matter how 

 many thousands are grown no two 

 ever bloom exactly alike and practi- 

 cally all are beautiful. 



H. C. Me.^der. 



GARDENERS' & FLORISTS' CLUB 

 OF BOSTON 



C. S. Strout of Biddeford, Me., was 

 the principal speaker at the meeting 

 of the club, Tuesday night. Mr. Strout 

 reviewed his trip to the Carnation 

 Convention in Chicago and related 

 some of the incidents that made the 

 most impression on him. He said that 

 the exhibit would have been a very 

 meagre one had it not been for the 

 Eastern growers. The Middle West 

 growers did not make much of a dis- 

 play because of the fact that the prizes 

 did not nearly match the prices being 

 paid in the market. Mr. Strout said 

 that his display staged by Mr. Engle- 

 mann cost him a lot of money. Twelve 

 hundred flowers were used and about 

 three hundred more were put on the 

 tables. It was Mr. Strout's observation 

 that flowers arranged after the English 

 fashion were much more difliicult to 

 judge than those displayed in the 

 American way, although the English 

 treatment makes a fine appearance. 

 Mr. Strout also had something to say 

 about the disadvantages suffered by 

 growers living far from the centers. 

 He said that the nearby man got the 

 pick of the offers while florists from a 

 distance had to take what was handed 

 them. 



Mr. James 'WTieeler of Natick said 

 that the small prizes given at the 

 shows were not a great inducement to 

 exhibitors, as illustrated by the situa- 

 tion in Chicago as Mr. Strout described 

 it Mr. Wheeler had on hand an at- 

 tractive display of Godfrey callas and 

 told how he grew them. He said that 

 he has his callas in solid beds and 



keeps them watered by the Skinner 

 irrigation system. In this way he gets 

 much larger flowers than when he 

 grew them in pots. 



Mr. Gustave Thommen was another 

 speaker, giving most of his attention 

 to the oil heating apparatus which has 

 been installed at the Moore green- 

 houses in Arlington. 



Among the displays was one of a 

 new dark crimson carnation submitted 

 by C. J. McGregor & Son of Newbury- 

 port. Mr. McGregor said that this car- 

 nation was a cross between President 

 and Winsor. 



BOSTON NOTES 



Mr. Henry Robinson, the well-known 

 wholesaler, has been confined to his 

 home wnth a severe cold for several 

 days. 



Mr. Peter Miller, of the Thomas J. 

 Grey Co. who has been critically ill, 

 has passed the crisis and is on the 

 mend. 



Much damage was done by the storm 

 around Boston. The chief sufferer was 

 Everett E. Cummings of Woburn. The 

 weight of the snow broke down about 

 100 feet of a large sweet pea house, 

 causing a loss of about $10,000. Mr. 

 cummings immediately boarded up the 

 end of the section which remained and 

 shifted the steam pipes, by which 

 action he saved a large part of the 

 crop. This week he has been sending 

 in remarkably good sweet peas from 

 thp damaged house. 



The snow also caused the collapse 

 of a storage house and an old bam on 

 .\llan Peirce's establishment in Wal- 

 tham. 



In spite of tlie bad weather, the or- 

 chid show scheduled for last Saturday 

 at Horticultural Hall was held. About 

 a hundred plants from the green- 

 houses of A. C. Burrage at Beverly 

 were shown. These orchids were on 

 the road for two days, the truck being 

 stalled in the snow. The plants were 

 saved by being wrapped in blankets 

 and carried to a nearby house. J. T. 

 Butterworth of South Framingham 

 also famous as an orchid grower, had 

 a display which included a plant with 

 fifteen blossoms which was given a 

 silver medal. 



W. N. Craig, secretary of the Garden- 

 ers' & Florists' Club, has come out in 

 a signed communication to the papers 

 in which he favors daylight saving. 

 .Mr, Craig insists that many members 

 of the Massachusetts State Grange 

 favor the light saving, and that there 

 is no economic foundation tor the 

 statement that daylight saving will in- 

 crease the cost of horticultural prod- 

 ucts. 



About March 1 Wax Bros, will move 

 to 44 Temple Place. 



