THE GLADIOLUS. 79 



You must now prepare for planting out. The bed 

 should be in an open, sunny, though sheltered situation, 

 and the soil should be deep and mellow, and rich in humus. 

 A heavy, pasty, or lumpy soil will not do. Gladioli will 

 grow finely in peat, and still more finely in a hazelly 

 loam, continuing abundance of rotted turf, and a moderate 

 amount of old hotbed soil. Many natural soils which 

 may be described as sandy loam will grow them well 

 without any aid whatever ; but we have noticed that the 

 most successful growers prepare the ground with care, 

 and put in a pretty liberal dressing of well-rotted farm- 

 yard manure. 



The best time to plant out is just when the pots are 

 full of roots, and will turn out without breaking. Then 

 make your plantation, and if the weather be dry give 

 water every evening for a week, after which discontinue 

 watering for a week or so, unless the weather sets in 

 unusually dry and hot, in which case the water-pot must 

 be kept going. In a run of ten years, during which we 

 flowered all the varieties, we managed to do well without 

 often resorting to the water-pot. We had our plants 

 nicely rooted in small pots, and put them out in showery 

 weather, and did little more for them than to keep the 

 ground clear of weeds and afford aid as required in staking 

 and tying; and the bloom was always of good average 

 quality, and sometimes more than that. 



In respect of taking up the corms, it is very important 

 to remark that you may incur serious loss by waiting 

 until the leaves die down, for in a mild, moist autumn they 

 will keep green until near Christmas ; meanwhile, perhaps, 

 the roots, being moist when they ought to be dry, become 

 diseased, and this is manifested in the next season in 



