-^ ^^loLv^p (i-ardco ar)d L^^^O- ^ 



DIGGING AND CARING FOR GLADIOLUS BULBS. 



OU can begin to dig gladioli from September 20 to October 20, as 

 soon as the foliage shows signs of ripening or browning, which is 

 usually one month or two after flowering. Take a garden or potato 

 fork, and run it down below the bulb, press down on the handle 

 until the soil and bulbs are well loosened, taking care not to dis- 

 turb the bulbs too much to loosen the bulblets. Then pull the 

 bulbs out of the soft dirt by the stalks and lay them down one way 

 on the ground in little heaps ; if any very ripe ind loose bulblets drop in this 

 process you can see them and pick them up. When you have dug all the bulbs 

 you wish to care for this day, take a common pair of pruning shears, or even a 

 pair of large scissors, hold from three to six stalks in the left hand and the bulbs 

 over a shallow box, and cut the stalks off about one inch from the bulb ; spread 

 the bulbs then on a floor, or in shallow boxes, or over close slats or sieve-like 

 perforations, which is a little the best, in a dry airy place as long as you can 

 with safety from freezing ; if you can keep them in this way until Christmas, so 

 much the better. By January you should pull off the bare plate or loose shell 

 and old roots, which is easily done by pressing the thumb against them. When 

 a man can clean from 10,000 to 20,000 bulbs in this way in a day you can see 

 it is no great labor. After the roots are off collect all the little black bulblets 

 in a box by themselves. If you have any considerable amount of them put dirt 

 and everything into a sieve, then you can shake the dirt out and throw the roots 

 out very quickly. Put the bulblets down cellar or in any other cool moderately 

 dry place, and plant them as early as you can get in the ground in the spring. 

 Now the large bulbs are separated from the bulblets you can put them in slat 

 bottomed boxes, about 3 or 4 inches deep, down cellar in a dry cool place free 

 from frost. In this way you can keep your bulbs as well all winter as the 

 florist, and always have fine large flowers at little actual cost and labor. — 

 Gardening. 



VARIETIES OF CANNA INDICA. 



;^HE new varieties of Canna are beautiful things in the flower-garden, 

 but cultivators will not get the utmost out of them that they are 

 capable of unless special preparations are made for them. Merely 

 to dig the ground after manuring it is not enough. It should be 

 remembered that the Canna is a native of the tropics, and can 

 only be relied upon to flower well in the warmest of summers when some 

 endeavors are made to imitate tropical conditions. The first of these is warmth 

 of soil, and this can be obtained in a modified degree by putting, say, a bed of 



(316) 



