HORTICULTURE 



Mntered as eecondclass matter December 8, 1904, at the Post Ofllcc at Boston, Mass., under the Act of Congress of March 3. 1897. 



VoL XXXII 



DECEMBER 23, 1920 



No. 21 



THE TALK OF THE TRADE 



1 have noticed an increased inter- 

 est in gladiolus tor forcing purposes 

 this year, and 1 can't see why thi.s in- 

 crease in planting is not justified. The 

 gladiolus I believe has turned a good 

 margin of profit to the growers who 

 forced them the past few seasons. 

 And the all-important point is to se- 

 lect those varieties that give a good 

 percentage of bloom. Of course, to- 

 gether with this point we must not 

 forget that well ripened bulbs are very 

 necessary. A good plan is to spread 

 the bulbs out in a warm, perfectly 

 dry place, such as the boiler shed, and 

 leave them there for a week or so be- 

 fore planting. This encourages a quick 

 start and a somewhat earlier bloom- 

 ing season. 



I have many times before advocated 

 Primulinus Hybrids as one of the 

 best sorts for profit. The blooms are 

 not so large, but two to four blooms 

 may be had from a bulb, and there is 

 a good steady call for flowers of this 

 type. 1 will mention a few of the 

 other varieties which have been dem- 

 onstrated good for forcing. Of course 

 America is always well thought of. It 

 forces readily, and the blooms are in 

 demand, bringing pretty close to top 

 notch prices. The variety Mrs. Watt 

 is not so generally mentioned as a 

 good forcing sort, but I find that those 

 growers who have tried it out have 

 averaged very well. In fact, in some 

 cases it has produced a better per- 

 centage than even America. It finds 



a ready sale, as its rich, American 

 Beauty color takes well the flower 

 stems are well set up. In length of 

 stem it is medium, and nearly all of 

 the flowers open at one time and are 

 set well together. 



In whites there are several, namely 

 Chicago White, Augusta, Lily Lehman, 

 Lily White and May. The latter I had 

 not heard about until the past season, 

 but it showed up very well and is one, 

 I think, well worthy of attention. 



Among the various shades of pink 

 sorts I would mention Halley, Inde- 

 pendence, Mrs. Francis King, Panama, 

 Pink Beauty and Willy Wlgman. 

 Other varieties which have been tried 

 out for forcing and found satisfactory 

 are Klondike, clear yellow; Niagara, a 

 little deeper yellow than the former; 

 Delice. a very clear pink; and Glory 



k'. K. rierson's Model Store at Tarr.vtown, X, Y. 



