October 27, 1863. ] 



JOIJENAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



325 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



OCT. 27— NOV. 2, 1SG3. 



Tortoise turies. 



St. Simon am> St. Jdde. 



Hare huntinp; beRins. 



Wuoclcoclv arrives. 



Evelyn born. 1620. Gard, 



22 SoK. AFT. Trinity. All Saiktp. 



Kfompfcr died, 1716. Bot. 



From observntinns taken near London during the last thirty-six years, the aver.-jge (lav temperature of the "week is 54.6°, and its nitrht 

 temperature 37.6°. The greatest heat was 67^, on the 29th and 30th, 1833, and 31st, 1854 ; and the lowest cold, 22°, on the 2nd, 18C0. 

 The greatest fall of rain was 1.06 inch. 



-X.* 



THE GLADIOLUS AND ITS FAILUEES. 



rCH it is to be 

 liopcd that the in- 

 quiry now going 

 on in the columns 

 of The Jodenal 

 ofHokticultuee 

 regarding the dis- 

 ease or causes ot 

 failure in this 

 popular flower, 

 may lead to some 

 practical remedy 

 or preventive ; 

 and if every one 

 whose bulbs have 

 become diseased 

 during the past 

 season would re- 

 port the particu- 

 lars of his case, we might then be able to ascertain if the 

 failure has arisen from causes that are preventible, or 

 from some constitutional debility or cause over which we 

 have little control. 



The supposition of a correspondent, " T.," at page 288, 

 is certainly not an unlikely one ; indeed it is utterly 

 hopeless to expect a good bloom — or, in fact, any bloom 

 at all — from a bulb which has been deprived of half its 

 juices before planting time, and the best growing period 

 gone ere it was planted. An old Potato planted in 

 .July or August does not produce so good a crop as one 

 put in the ground in April ; and in like manner the 

 Gladiolus, though it will flower in the same season that 

 it is planted if the ripening of the bulb has been well 

 perfected the year before, yet, if the planting be delayed 

 until there is no longer time for flowering as well as 

 perfecting the bulb, the latter cannot take place, and a 

 flowerless growth will be the result in the following 

 season. 



On the other hand, are there not cases in which well- 

 ripened bulbs have failed, after commencing their growth 

 apparently under favourable circumstances, and all has 

 gone on well until a certain period, when they dwindle 

 and die ofl' ? If this be verified, we must look to some- 

 thing else as the cause of failure, and perhaps we may 

 discover its origin and some means of prevention. 



My own experience with the Gladiolus has not been 

 such as to enable me to give a confident opinion on the 

 causes of failure, as I have less reason to complain 

 of it than most people ; and these cases might in some 

 measure be attributsd to the unfavourable position the 

 plants were in. I will, however, give the cases which 

 probably will interest those who, like myself, are anxious 

 to know why perfect success cannot always be depended 

 upon. 



In the first example, in the spring of 1861 I bought a 

 quantity of Gladiolus gandavensis, and planted the Jsulbs 

 No. 136.— Vol. V., New 81111E8. 



in a bed that had been prepared for the hardiest varieties 

 of Indian Azaleas. It was mostly leaf mould. The 

 situation was a dry one, and they received no artificial 

 watering. They were jjlanted in patches of three bulbs 

 together amongst the olher plants, some Japan Liliums 

 being in the same bed ; but these Lilies evidently wanted 

 more moisture, although they flowered not amiss. The 

 Gladiolus, however, flowered well, and I did not disturb 

 the bulbs that autimin, but they remained as they were 

 and flowered well in 1862 also. Circumstances also pre- 

 vented the bulbs being meddled with last autumn, one of 

 the principal being a carelessness whether they did well 

 or not, as the brighter colour of G. Brenchleyensis ob- 

 tained for it a decided preference, so they were left to 

 flower the third time where they were first planted, which 

 they did tolerably well, thoiigh evidently recpiiring to be 

 taken up and replanted on other gi'ound, as the flowers 

 were smaller. I may observe that some of the same 

 kind of Gladiolus had been grown elsewhere before the 

 above were planted, but being taken up annually their 

 case does not ret|uii'e to be noticed. I find, however, that 

 G. gandavensis is much hardier than G. Brenchleyensis, 

 as some of the latter which were left out last winter in 

 the same manner as those already spoken of either fell 

 a prey to insects in the ground or did not posses.s suffi- 

 cient vital power to resist the decaying influence of the 

 long winter's damp. More than three-fourths of those 

 left in the ground during winter fafled to make their 

 appearance in the past season. The ground, I must 

 observe, was a deep loamy fresh soil fai- from being so 

 diy as the other, at the same time not wet ; in fact it 

 was what might be called good land. The bulbs flowered 

 well last year, and what remained flowered well again 

 the past summer; but I imagined the bright scarlet of 

 the original was in a measure impaii'cd or lessened so as 

 to be, in many of the spikes, no better than G. ganda- 

 vensis. Might I ask if this has been the case elsewhere ? 

 Some other bulbs planted in another part of the garden 

 turned out variously, some of them well, and others grew 

 away until about the period when the flower-spike ought 

 to have made its appearance, when they withered away. 

 This was sometimes the case with a whole patch, or 

 sometimes one or two bulbs would so succumb and the 

 third flower tolerably well, which circumstance leads me 

 to think that the disease, if it is one, is not infectious. 

 I beUeve, however, that we have had fewer failures than 

 have been met with elsewhere, but I cannot yet give a 

 decided opinion on their cause, and have only recorded 

 them for the benefit of others making comparisons, and 

 whose experience I hope will duly appear in the pages of 

 this periodical. 



Although I have had some opportunities of seeing this 

 plant at other places, I confess that I am unable to give 

 any opinion on the subject of soils as affecting it. In the 

 Manchester Botanic Garden I saw two excellent beds of 

 it in the best possible health and promising to bloom well, 

 as the spikes were well formed and some of the flowers 

 ready to open when I saw them in August. These, I have 

 no doubt, flowered well, I did not perceive any failures 

 No, 787.— Vol. XXX., Old Sekiet," 



