246 



Cornell Extension Bulletin 10 



thinner conns do not produce long- 



blooming spikes. So that in order to 



''™^"^" maintain the quality of the bulbs and 



the correlated quality of the blooms, 

 \'ery old corms should not be allowed 

 to bloom, or else new stock must be 

 grown from cormels. The more nearly 

 spherical corms, in other words the 

 thicker ones, are the better. With age 

 the flat corms frequently send up five 

 or six shoots, causing the production of 

 not one or two blooming-sized corms, 

 but small ones that need a year's growth 

 before they will bloom again. However, 

 corms vary greatly in size, it being the 

 characteristic of some varieties to pro- 

 duce small corms. It is usually blooming 

 i JH age, rather than blooming size, that is 



important. In choosing corms from mix- 

 tures, therefore, it is not wise to select 

 only the large ones. Some of the blue 

 hybrids produce small corms, and this 

 color might be omitted if large corms 

 onh' were purchased. The variety Baron 

 Joseph Hulot never produces as large a 

 corm as do some of the other varieties, 

 and many varieties, for example Mrs. 

 W. E. Fr\^er, produce flowers from very 

 small corms. 

 - JK i^i^n-^H Corms are graded officially by the 



American Gladiolus Society as follows : 



Grade Diameter 



ist, or no. I i^ inches and up 



2d, or no. 2 ij to i| inches 



3d, or no. 3 I to I J inches 



4th, or no. 4 f to I inch 



5th, or no. 5 8 to I inch 



Fig. 37. FIVE CORMS from one ^^^^^^ .^^ ^j^.^ ^^nner, numbers i, 2, 



When the corms have produced flow- - r i i • • "nt t. _ 



ers for a series of years, they become and 3 are of blOOmmg SlZC. JNumber 4 



flatter. When corms of this kind are plant- . , , , . ,. u 1 i„ 



ed. they often produce five or six small- oftCn blOOmS, but IS USUally SOld Only tO 



sized corms instead of one or two of bloom- , ,. . j ^.y u ^ ^ •„ i. 



ing size the wholesale trade. Nimiber 5 is not 



