132 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



plant them in the open ground without first starting them in the house. He 

 would advise cutting the tubers apart as soon as the buds have started and allow 

 only one bud to grow with a bit of tuber attached. He found clay soil well 

 suited for dahlias, especially when charcoal is added. The charcoal is useful 

 where early bloom is wanted. We mention this just now in order to give a hint 

 to our amateur flower growers that the time has come for starting dahlias in 

 boxes indoors, in order to have them ready for planting out toward the end of 

 May. 



HOW TO GROW GLADIOLI. 



Over-rich soil and too much moisture have much to do with the degenera- 

 tion of this fine flower. For fifteen years or more I have been a wholesale 

 grower of the gladiolus, and at the present time — September, 1880 — I have 

 many hundreds of thousands of these bulbs nearly ready to be dug up, and for 

 a certainty, hardly one in a thousand will show the slightest trace of disease. 



My soil is extremely sandy, so much so that it has the appearance of 

 being really nothing but sand. For the gladiolus I use no strong manure what- 

 ever, in fact, if a pretty well manured crop of corn, or some other rank grower 

 has occupied the land during the previous season, I have the ground merely 

 plowed up in the spring, and have the bulbs planted without additional prepara- 

 tion. Planting begins about April i, and is usually ended by May i. From 

 early in June till the end of August we have a tropical heat, the thermometer 

 ranging from 70"^ to 85° and 90°. This, however, does not disagree with the ^ 

 gladiolus, unless the weather happens to be very dry as well as hot, in that case 

 the plant suffers, especially if the flower stalk is showing, at which time a soak- 

 ing rain is of great benefit. Towards the end of September, or indeed sooner 

 with some varieties, the leaves begin to change from a lively green color to a 

 yellowish brown, showing that the season's growth is at an end. Then digging 

 up begins, each digger being followed by a boy who cuts off the stalks as soon 

 as the plants are taken from the ground. The bulbs are dried, not in the sun, 

 but on airy shelves, and the roots are cleaned off during rainy days, or any time 

 during the winter, whenever that is convenient. 



I am by no means in favor of keeping the stalks attached to the bulbs 

 after they have been dug up. 



Gladiolus bulbs, to come out in good order in the spring, should be kept 

 cool and dry during winter. If the bulbs are in a damp place, or heaped 

 together before they are fully dried, the roots will start in a short time, and a 

 top growth will be likely to show itself as well. But no matter how cool and 

 dry they may be kept, some varieties are almost sure to throw out a shoot in 

 early spring, of which fact I may mention that the kind named Shakespeare is a 

 notable example. — Gardening. 



