10 



The Weekly Rorists* Review. 



April 11, 1912. 



some of the most beautifully flowered 

 specimens were American Pillar. 



The retailers no longer order their 

 Easter cut flowers a month in advance, 

 or even a week in advance. They wait 

 to see how the weather turns and the 

 demand develops. They wire for stock. 

 There were few disappointments this 

 year. 



An Easter corsage bouquet was made 

 of buds of Mrs. Aaron Ward rose with 

 white crocuses in front and below, 

 backed with Mexican ivy and tied with 

 white ribbon. The effect was excellent. 



Of course every store that makes 

 any pretensions whatever put at least 

 a crepe paper cover on every pot, but 

 in the high class stores there was a 

 notable moderation in the embellish- 



ment of the plants. While the use of 

 baskets, jardinieres, pot covers and 

 ribbons was more general than ever 

 before, the decoration of the individual 

 plants was not carried to the excess of 

 other years. 



HABBINGTON'S AUTO. 



The H. Harrington concern, which 

 was established in 1892 and incorpo- 

 rated in 1901, now has two stores in 

 Seattle, with 250,000 feet of glass on 

 Vashon island. Eeeently the Flanders 

 20, of the Studebaker line of auto- 

 mobiles, as shown in the accompanying 

 illustration, was put on the street. The 

 members of the staff say it is giving 

 excellent service, taking care of the 

 deliveries from both stores. 



^^ 



NOTES ON 

 ^ GLADIOLI 



i 



IDEALS IN GLADIOLI. 



In The Eeview of March 28, page 40, 

 Brother Meader expresses his amaze- 

 ment at my ideal gladioli, seven feet 

 or so in height, and he thinks my 7- 

 foot plants would require extraordi- 

 nary root systems in order to with- 

 stand the Ohio winds. Yes, the breezes 

 blow sweepingly in Ohio, so that it is 

 necessary to have unusually well de- 

 fined anchorage in the root systems of 

 our gladioli. 



When each hybridist will sum up the 

 demands and needs of the various agen- 

 cies using gladioli, we shall approach 

 nearer to a common viewpoint as to 

 what our ideals should include; then 

 will our ideals largely coincide. We 

 have a number of ideals, each for a 

 specific purpose. For a strictly garden 

 purpose we should want a dwarfer 

 plant, with only a few blooms open at 

 a time and lasting a long time in 

 bloom, but for a cut flower and for 

 massing purposes the ideal which I 

 mentioned, and about which Brother 

 Meader becomes quite humorous, is 

 what will be shown by us in the not 

 distant future. 



Suppose a florist wants a lot of gladi- 

 oli for decoration in a large room, 

 church or hall, why should not a vase of 

 gladioli with 4-foot or 5-foot stems, 

 broad foliage and enormous flowers, 

 make glad both the decorator and the 

 employing party? By no means are 

 these abnormal, but they are built up 

 systematically, with a large number of 

 characters, instead of only the few 

 which Mendel contemplated. Besides, 

 one must not forget that Mendelism is 

 for one thing, which can be and is 

 superseded. Was not my ideal thor- 

 oughly harmonious, well balanced, 

 rightly rounded? 



Eeplying to Mr. Meader 's question, 

 a majority of our present hybrids of 

 Primulinus are nicely opened to catch 

 those "boisterous breezes," to test 

 their wings and anchorage. They em- 

 brace qualities of all types, but are 

 mostly clear yellows, with little or no 

 markings, while some have nice lines 

 or blotches. The results are absolutely 

 in the hands of the hybridist; he alone 



must shape the future of his pets. Few 

 hybridists have been getting the results 

 that they should, because they have not 

 observed their work carefully and crit- 

 ically. In a few years the question of 

 breeding will be revolutionized. Boses 

 and carnations that we consider today 

 phenomenal will not be so considered. 

 I realize that I tread on dangerous 

 ground when I say this, but I am ready 

 to prove my statements. 



I have done some work on other sub- 

 jects to prove my deductions, notably 

 with the hemerocallis. These results 

 have been even more pronounced than 

 with the gladiolus, showing many much 

 larger flowers than the best sorts, such 

 as Florham, aureola and aurantiaca 

 major, with much more vigorous 

 growth and more freedom in flowering. 

 Some blooms measure eight inches in 

 diameter. There are richest goldens, 

 golden orange, bronzes, tawns and pale 

 lemon white, some richly tinted with 

 pink and red, showing that soon we 

 shall have them in all colors. Alongside 

 of these hybrids, the older sorts and 

 types are commonplace. I shall next 

 add to my work cereals, especially 



corn, in a small way, and expect to 

 advance the time of ripening without 

 sacrificing any other good qualities. 



We may think that gladioli are in 

 enormous demand at present, but in 

 five years we shall sell millions where 

 we sell thousands now, only the quality 

 must be enhanced and much of the 

 commonplace rubbish being sent out to- 

 day must be eliminated. We are not 

 "assuming," but can easily prove our 

 claims. 



A word about wilting before pack- 

 ing: Peonies have been left all day 

 and night in the fields, so that they 

 looked scalded when discovered the 

 next morning. By cutting off a 

 little of the ends knd putting 

 the stems in water they were 

 packed with the day's cut, and in the 

 evening no one could detect that they 

 had undergone such an ordeal. In the 

 case of many plants, a few moments of 

 lying in the air to wilt increases their 

 ability to absorb water. This, of course, 

 should be done with care. 



C. Betscher. 



DRY EOT. 



I am sending you a few America gla- 

 diolus bulbs that appear to be diseased. 

 Please tell me what it is called and 

 what to do about it. Would you ad- 

 vise planting the bulba that are affected 

 or would it be necessary to destroy them? 

 What effect will it have on the flowers? 

 I have separated all the good bulbs 

 from the bad ones. None of the bulbs 

 has flowered more than two years and 

 all are field grown. Any information 

 you can give me on the subject I shall 

 be thankful for. W. J. P. 



The gladiolus corms are infected with 

 the fungus commonly known as dry rot. 

 The investigation of gladiolus diseases 

 has not progressed far enough for us to 

 say what the specific organism is that 

 causes this trouble. Therefore it is im- 

 possible as yet to offer suggestions of 

 value concerning treatment. When pos- 

 sible, it would be the safer course to 

 abandon the culture of susceptible vari- 

 eties, but if this cannot be done, would 

 suggest that the diseased bulbs be sort- 

 ed out and destroyed. Planting the 

 dean stock on new land is advised. 

 There is no solution into which you 

 can dip the corms which would prove 

 effective, because the fungus is too deep- 

 seated for this. Small lots of valuable 

 bulbs may have the spots cut out and 



f-. 



Studebaker-Flandert Delivety Car Uxd by a Sea tie Florist. 



