November 21, 1867. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTIGULTDBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



379 



THE GLADIOLUS AT HOME AND ABROAD. 



N tlio subject of tliis bulb I 

 write feelingly now. I have 

 heard previously of disease 

 and losses, of growers fight- 

 ing sliy of it, and nursery- 

 men considering it did not 

 pay owing to its uncertainty, but hitherto have been in 

 the enviable position of knoniug nothing of disease from 

 painful experience. Not so now. I havejust been looking 

 through my bulbs, and anything more melancholy than 

 tlieir appearance it is impossible to conceive. I was sure 

 it would be so : for the foliage had turned so yellow long 

 before its proper time, so many spikes had never been 

 propei'ly open, the examination of one or two revealed 

 such a miserable state of decay, that I felt sure a large 

 part of nn' collection was doomed to the manure heap : 

 and so, alas ! it has turned out. If. then, I speak in the 

 first instance of the Gladiolus at home, my readers will 

 readily imagine that it is a -v-ery ticklish subject v,ilh me ; 

 while at the same time I must, in order to exonerate 

 myself from the charge of not knowing how to grow it, 

 detail a few facts which wUl tend to show that the disease 

 from which my bulbs have sutlered is as mysterious in its 

 character as the Potato disease, and as destructive in its 

 effects. 



Tlie garden in which my beds wore situated is just the 

 Mnd of ground that my good friend Jlonsieur Souohct told 

 me was the best for the Gladiolus — a rich, deep, friable, 

 dark loam, wliich will, indeed, grow anything well, except, 

 perhaps, Roses ; and I have taken care that the bulbs 

 should not be planted in the same place in successive years, 

 so that I must banish the suggestion which has been made 

 to me by some, that the gi'oimd was Gladiolus-sick. This 

 could not be. as there were Peas in it last year, and it was 

 thoroughly well prepared last autumn, having received a 

 good coating of dung, and being constantly turned over and 

 exposed to the action of the air and frost during the last 

 winter. I planted every bulb myself, and into each hole 

 that I made for its reception placed some well-prepared 

 light soil and sand, so that the bulbs might have every 

 advantage in pusliing their roots. They one and all speared 

 well — there was not a miss in the bed, and I was antici- 

 pating (for my collection was finer than it had ever been), 

 a magnificent display ; but in the end of May symptoms 

 of chlorosis appeared in the leaves. During the very dry 

 weather that we had in the latter part of May and June 

 the beds were carefully watered, but the disease went on 

 until the disastrous results I have mentioned displayed 

 themselves. What, then, is it'.' Wliat caused it '.' 



The bulbs at first begin to show a few small spots ; by 

 degrees these spread, until at last the whole bulb shrivels 

 up. the crown and base alilio become black, and it has to 



No. 847.-VOL XUI., New Seiues. 



he thrown away. But then every bulb is not affected. I 

 have planted two of the same kind, and received from tlie 

 same grower, within a foot of one another : one has re- 

 mained perfectly sound, the other has become as black as 

 a coal. It would not, one woidd think, be the soil, for 

 then all would have suii'ered : moreover, last 3-ear in a bed 

 in the same square I had no symptoms of the disease, 

 while of some hundreds of Bowiensis and Brenchleyensis 

 planted in diflerent parts of the garden, but very few were 

 in the least affected by it. 



Another ciu-ious fact is. that the disease has attacked 

 bulbs which have flowered ; for only yesterday I saw 'witli 

 my friend and neighbour, Mr. Banks, of Shoiden, some 

 bulbs which had thrown up fine spikes of bloom, but im- 

 mediately afterwards had shown symptoms of decaj', and 

 are now quite as bad as any of mine. Other growers in 

 this neighbourhood have suffered : whUe, singularly enough, 

 when I took some of mine over to M. Souchet last month 

 to show him, he was quite astonished, and seemed to loiow 

 nothing of this dreaded enemy, as bad in its way as those 

 enemies he sutlers from — the rer hhinc and the mole cricket. 

 It is a puzzle ; and although I have forwarded some bulbs 

 to one of our most distinguished botanists, I am -without 

 hope that he will be able to suggest a remedy. Some have 

 imagined that it was the dry weather : so I thought at one 

 time, but tlien they have much drier weather abroad, and 

 I watered carefidly. 



I will, however, no\v leave this unpleasant topic, and 

 have a few words to say about the Gladiolus abroad. I 

 have ab-eady mentioned the rich treat I had — all the 

 greater for being so unexpected — in seeing the collection 

 of M. Souchet at the Universal I'^xliibition. I afterwards 

 went down to Fontainebleau, intending to remain there a 

 week or more, but was compelled to leave after a couple of 

 days' sojourn, owing to the place not agreeing with one of 

 our party ; but I had a good deal of conversation 'with the 

 Gladiolus raiser and grower, M. Souchet, the kmdest and 

 most amiable of men, and from him I gathered some few 

 hints which may be serviceable to growers. 



:M. Souchet says it is quite a mistake to wait for the 

 maturity of the bulbs before taking them up, that if soft 

 they rather deteriorate ; and that his plan is to take them 

 up when there is any symptom of the foliage turning yellow 

 after floweiing — not even, indeed, always waiting for this ; 

 to cut off the leaves at once quite close to the bulb, sepa- 

 rating the spawn, and then to put the bulbs in a cool and 

 airy place to dry. It is hard to conceive the extent to 

 which he grows them. He has built a new and verj- hand- 

 some dwelling-house for himself and for his bulbs. I may 

 say the whole of the attics are reserved for them ; the 

 cellars are expressly buUt for them ; and here, up-stairs 

 and downstairs, you may see positively heaps of them, like 

 Potatoes, gradually drying oft". Then he has a largs 

 number of sliclvcs on which the spawn is laid until the 

 spring, when it is planted in drills, and generally will 

 make sufiicicntly large bulbs to bloom the next year. On 

 the point of tlie size of the bulbs he was very decided. 

 The large bulbs give more increase and a larger number 

 of blooms, but the smaller ones tlu-ow up the finer spikes. 



No. 9Jt.-TaL. XX.^VIU., Ou> Sebieb. 



