GLADIOLUS 



385 



Timing the Flowering Period 



The retaU grower who has use for a hundred flowers a week 

 from the twentieth of April on up to August first should plant, in 

 order to cut that quantity, approximately 300 bulbs for the first 

 batch in late November. These will produce about seventy-five 

 per cent of flowering plants and start to come into bloom the latter 

 part of April and continue to the middle of May. The second 300 

 should be planted about December fifteenth. These will come into 

 flower from April thirtieth up to May thirtieth. Bulbs planted 

 January tenth will come into bloom about the early part of June, 

 and so on. The later you plant, the shorter the time required to 

 get them into flower. While the first batch may require from 

 seventeen to twenty weeks, those planted under glass in February 

 can be brought through in about fourteen weeks. It is always safe 

 to plant thirty per cent more 

 bulbs than you figure getting 

 flowers. You may obtain a much 

 higher yield, and frequently out 

 of a lot of one hundred bulbs 

 planted at the same time there 

 will be quite a number coming 

 into flower fuUy four weeks 

 later than the rest. If you 

 grow your first plants on in pots, 

 as soon as they are cut the rows 

 may be replanted with stock 

 coming into flower about the 

 early part of June (from bulbs 

 potted up about the end of 

 February). You can also make 

 a planting of potted plants in _ 

 a mild hotbed by the middle of 

 April and remove the sashes in 

 early May when the plants begin 

 to touch the glass. Another lot 

 can be planted out of pots in a 

 coldframe by the end of April, 

 and still another lot out of pots 

 into the open field. 



The proper way is to mark 

 down the dates as you plant 

 the bulbs, preserve a correct 

 record, and keep on changing 

 the dates of plantiiig and the 

 number of bulbs made use of 



Fig. 170. — Gladiolus "Am)rica." We 

 have today grander varieties than this 

 good old standby, but the florist still 

 thinks well of it as a paying proposition 

 for both outdoors and indoors 



