Decehbbb 26, 1912. 



The Florists^ Review 



13 



OESEBVATIONS ON aLAOIOU. 



[A synopsis of a paper by O. D. Black, or 

 Independence, la., read at the forty-fourth an- 

 nual convention of the Iowa State Horticultural 

 Society, at Dea Moines. ] 



My attention was first called to the 

 gladiolus by M. Crawford, who was the 

 first large grower of seedlings in Amer- 

 ica. The interest in this flower has 

 greatly increased each year, until now 

 there are many who grow fields of them 

 for the cut flower and bulb trade. This 

 is a healthful, outdoor occupation, well 

 adapted to women, several of whom are 

 already making a success of it. A few 

 of the specialists devote more than 100 

 acres each to this purpose. 



For a succession of blooms, a portion 

 of the bulbs can be planted as soon as 

 danger of freezing is past, and the re- 

 mainder at intervals of two weeks until 

 July. The bulbs will endure some freez- 

 ing under favorable conditions. 



The bulbs should be planted from two 

 to six inches deep, according to size, and 

 only slightly covered, filling the furrows 

 after the bulbs have grown up a few 

 inches. They will stand close planting 

 in good soil. We think the best distance 

 for garden culture is two inches apart in 

 rows twelve inches apart. In heavy soil 

 we have found that a light covering of 

 sand after the bulbs have been placed in 

 the bottom of the furrow is beneficial. 

 In the field we plant them quite thickly, 

 in rows twenty-eight inches apart. 



Diseases. 



The gladiolus is afflicted with but few 

 diseases or insect enemies. The bulbs are 

 liable to become scabby in soil where 

 scabby potatoes have been grown. I 

 have proved that corrosive sublimate is 

 a sure remedy for this by treating sev- 

 eral lots of bulbs from other growers the 

 same as we treat potatoes before plant- 

 ing. Another disease is a rust or blight, 

 resembling potato blight in appearance, 

 and it results in weakening the plant and 

 causing the bulbs to ripen prematurely. 

 Some varieties are immune or blight- 

 proof. Most varieties are more or less 

 resistant. There seems to be a disease in 

 the eastern states which causes the bulbs 

 to rot, the exact nature of which I do not 

 know. We have the promise of a bulletin 

 on this subject from the New York State 

 Agricultural Department when its investi- 

 gations are completed. 



Seenring Good Stock. 



Old bulbs, after blooming a few sea- 

 sons, lose their vigor and produce but few 

 bulblets. Bulbs two years old from the 

 bulblet are the most satisfactory. After 

 buying the America gladiolus two or 

 three times and always getting old bulbs, 

 we endeavored to secure young stock 

 from the introducers. They replied that 

 they had no young stock of America for 

 sale. 



Many inferior varieties have been 

 named and listed that should now be dis- 

 carded. We have bought what several of 

 the principal growers call their best mix- 

 tures and have planted them for compari- 

 son, and the most of them are only fair, 

 with a possible good one mixed in. An 

 extensive grower claims to have over 15,- 

 000 varieties. How many poor and or- 

 dinary varieties must be included in that 

 number! If he would select the best one 

 from each hundred and discard the other 

 ninety-nine, he would have in the 150 

 selected ones all that are necessary for 

 all practical purposes. 



Some New Varieties. 



It is interesting and somewhat expen- 



Quysanthemum Mn. Gilbert Drabble. 



sive to test tHe new varieties that are of- 

 fered each season. The past season we 

 had Coblentz, ISo. 54; Taconic and 

 George Betchter from different sources, 

 and they all proved to be identically the 

 same variety. Coblentz, No. 312, which, 

 I understand, he has named Emma, is a 

 fine, large, red variety, with very stiflE 

 spikes, and is much superior to Brench- 

 leyensis for border planting. Stewart's 

 No. 52, which he has named President 

 Taft, and which will be introduced by 

 him this season, is very vigorous. The 

 color is nearly the same shade of pink as 

 Taconic, but with much larger, wide-open 

 fltfwers. Among the new varieties from 

 Europe, Sans-Pareil and Col. Desterane 

 pleased us best. Primulinus, a native 

 variety from South Africa, is the purest 

 and brightest yellow we have seen. The 

 flowers are small and the spike not much 

 larger than a straw. 



Propagation. 



Gladiolus bulbs are produced and in- 

 creased in three ways. One or more bulbs 

 form just above the old bulb that is 

 planted in the spring, and these are all 

 that are usually saved by the average 

 small grower. Varieties are perpetuated 

 by planting the bulblets or offsets. Most 

 of the bulbs of commerce are produced 

 from these. 



When you remove the wings or mono 

 plane from a gladiolus seed, you have a 

 miniature bulb almost identical with the 

 parent bulb in shape, appearance and 

 composition. The bulb grown from this 

 seed is the first one of a new variety. We 

 have grown many thousands of seedlings 

 and have not yet found two exactly alike. 

 Our first experience growing these seed- 

 lings was with seed procured from a 

 friend, and we should judge from results 

 that it had not been carefully selected. 

 Our next planting was with seeds saved 

 by ourselves from selected Groff's hy- 

 brids. Then we planted seeds from named 

 varieties that were grown away from the 

 others, and finally seeds that were pro- 

 duced by hand pollenization. Each step 

 was an improvement on the preceding 

 one. The gladiolus haa been cross-fertil- 



ized for so many generations that it ii 

 only by chance that we sometimes get a 

 seedling resembling its parents. The 

 humming bird is to a great extent respon- 

 sible for this. The fine feathers on its 

 head collect the pollen grains as with a 

 brush, to be used on the next flower it 

 visits. We counted nearly a dozen of 

 these birds at work on our field at tha, 

 ■ame time. 



Producing New Sorts. ' 



By keeping a record of our hand 

 crosses for a number of years, we shall 

 be able to produce with greater certainty 

 the varieties that we desire. That many 

 of the best varieties for Europe and else- 

 where are not adapted to our climate^ 

 with its extreme droughts, is shown by 

 observations during the last summer. 

 Hand pollenization is nearly worthless 

 unless care is used to exclude foreign 

 pollen and also to prevent self-fertiliae- 

 tion. We select a strong, vigorous spike, 

 of the variety on which we wish to oper- 

 ate, on which the two lower blossoms are 

 nearly ready to expand, and carefully re- 

 move the anthers from these with smal) 

 pliers, then cover immediately with a 

 No. 2 strong manila paper bag, by tying 

 it xjlosely about the stem. We cut away 

 the remainder of the spike before cover- 

 ing, to prevent self-fertilization, and also 

 that the seeds may have the full benefit 

 and vigor of the parent plant. The con- 

 ditions surrounding the parent plant have 

 much to do in forming the character of 

 the next generation. About twenty-four 

 uours later, or when the pistils in the 

 flower from which we have removed the 

 anthers have come to maturity, we pollen- 

 ize them with pollen from the selected va- 

 riety, using the stamens as a small brush. 

 This pollen should be obtained from 

 flowers that have been previously covered,, 

 80 that it may not be mixed with other 

 pollen carried by the wind or insecti. 



North Manchester, Ind. — The River- 

 side Greenhouses, of which J. J. Martin 

 was formerly proprietor, are now owned 

 and conducted by W. D. and C. G.. 

 Brulier. 



