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JANUABT 15, 1920. 



The Florists^ Review 



17 



Many growers below the Mason and 

 Dixon line have tried to produce gladio- 

 lus bulbs for northern forcing, but so 

 far none has been commercially suc- 

 cessful, as their weather is too hot and 

 dry. Today the larger part of the com- 

 mercial gladioli are grown in Massa- 

 chusetts, New York, Indiana, Michigan 

 and Ohio. 



Watch These Points. ^, 



If you have had poor results with 

 gladioli in the greenhouse, see if you 

 cannot find the cause among the follow- 

 ing: Too early planting — earlier than 

 the end of January; bottom heat or too 

 high a temperature — even one day's 

 drying out will blast the buds during 

 the growing period; planting late varie- 

 ties; planting in too rich soil, which will 

 cause gladioli to make a rank growth 

 but no flowers. 



One more point you should bear in 

 mind: Sometimes you are offered 

 gladiolus bulbs at a figure away below 

 the market price because somebody 

 planted out a large number and "let 

 them grow, ' ' using no care and not even 

 removing the flowers. The bulbs are 

 apparently good bulbs, but they do not 

 have the necessary vitality for indoor 

 culture and the results they give are 

 unsatisfactory. 



Early Start on Outdoor Stock. 



A number of growers find it profit- 

 able to plant their gladioli in 3-inch 

 pots in ordinary soil during February 

 and place these under a bench, giving 

 them an occasional watering. Some- 

 time in April they place the plants in 

 ,a frame to harden them off and as soon 

 as the weather permits plant them out 

 in the garden from these 3-inch pots. 

 At this time they have a fine lot of roots 

 on plants ten inches high. Such plants 

 should be planted deeper than the soil in 

 the pots. The returns from plants of 

 this culture are greater than those from 

 many that can be grown through the 

 winter. D. W. Dumser. 



BEST WHITE GLADIOLUS. 



It is not likely that two florists in the 

 same gathering would agree as to the 

 best white variety of gladiolus. There 

 are some strong contenders for that 

 position, but judges will disagree, either 

 as to the purity of the whiteness or as 

 to the leadership in quality. Perhaps 

 the only agreement that would be 

 reached might be that there is no 

 "best" white variety. But for the 

 honor weighty statements would be 

 forthcoming by various advocates. 

 There is a strong list — Queen of Whites, 

 White Glory, Peace, Obicago White, 

 Glory of Holland, Augusta, White Ex- 

 celsior, Lily Lehman and John Lewis 

 Childs' novelty, "White America." 



B. Hammond Tracy says of Lily Leh- 

 man, which is the variety illustrated 

 on page 15, "No other white gladiolus 

 equals this variety. It is a lily in both 

 name and form, of a pure, glistening 

 white, with just a tinting of pink on 

 the tips of petals." In another connec- 

 tion he speaks of "the dazzling blue- 

 whiteness of Lily Lehman, the white 

 orchid gladiolus." 



Yet Queen of Whites is called "the 

 Sans Pareil of white gladioli," which, 

 being translated from the French, means 

 "without equal," but perhaps the 

 phrase is used as accurately as its An- 

 glo-Saxon equivalent, "peerless," is 

 customarily employed. No, we can't 



Gladiolus America. 1 



settle the argument, either by evidence 

 or edict. All of the varieties mentioned 

 above are well known and of good qual- 

 ity, and most of them, though not all, 

 do well in the carnation house. 



mired and is a popular color. The large 

 flowers and strong spikes draw the at- 

 tention of the public, just as they do 

 the readers in the illustration on this 

 page. This variety is one that forces 

 well. 



GLADIOLUS AMERICA. 



Gladiolus America was distributed in 

 1906 by John Lewis Childs, Flowerficld, 

 N. Y., but it had already made its ap- 

 pearance in the trade before that year 

 under the name Reuben H. Warder, 

 given it by Frank Banning, of Kinsman, 

 O., from whom Mr. Childs bought the 

 stock. The price of the corms then was 

 $75 per thousand, considered too high 

 for the grower to make a profit, though 

 blooms of America sold at $1 per dozen 

 spikes wholesale, which was double what 

 other cut gladioli brought at the time. 

 But in that day $10 per thousand bought 

 good-sized bulbs. Today, by contrast, 

 Mr. Childs asks $125 per thousand corms 

 for his 1920 novelty, White America, 

 and twice $10 is needed to buy even a 

 mixture. 



Today Gladiolus America is still a 

 favorite. Its dainty pink is much ad- 



GLADIOLI FOR CHRISTMAS. 



Considerable interest has been mani- 

 fested from time to time in the possi- 

 bility of having gladioli in flower for 

 Christmas or even January and Febru- 

 ary. Several large growers plan to ex- 

 periment next winter, with gladioli 

 which they will carry over this sum- 

 mer in cold storage and plant in Sep- 

 tember or October. To some this looks 

 feasible. It should be possible to sell 

 the blooms for a lower figure, if the 

 experiment proved successful, than that 

 asked for roses of the same length of 

 ptem. The outcome of the experiment 

 will be watched with great interest, 

 particularly if the gladiolus blooms 

 should be obtained in time for Christ- 

 mas sales. 



This question has come up in grow- 

 ers' minds before. Though the blooms 



I 



