SSDI01A3 



THE SUMMER GARDEN'S GAYEST BULB 



DOMING to us from the old world and, chiefly too, from South Africa, the modern hybrid Gladiolus has achieved a new home 

 in American gardens. Gorgeous in color, upstanding in habit, prolific in bloom, decorating the summer garden from planting 

 in the spring, it gives richly for a minimum of labor, and yet asks just enough attention and tending to remove it from the 

 class of the casual. 



The perfection of multitudinous coloring (rich, bizarre, barbaric, or subtle and delicate, as fancy may decide) which is offered to 

 the gardener to-day is the product of blendings of several different species, first made in Europe and transplanted to our congenial 

 clime where it achieved new heights of development. With such results from a blending of about half a dozen members of an 

 enormously large family, who may forecast the latent possibilities that may yet be attained? The earliest beginnings of the garden 

 improvement here, as with so many other popular plants, are not definitely known. The oldest garden form of Gladiolus — the 

 gandavensis, or Ghent hybrids, appeared in an exhibition in 1841 ; this starting type is late flowering, easy to grow, has solid colors 

 generally, and the spike compact. 



The Lemoinei varieties are the earliest flowering, brightly colored, with striking contrasts, beautifully marked and spotted. In 

 general the flowers are hooded in form. 



The Nancieanus group is an improvement on the foregoing, made by crossing that and the species Saundersi, an "open-face" 

 type; flowers wide-spreading, petals well expanded, great range of color; spike having a one-sided tendency and loose arrangement 

 of blooms. Season intermediate. 



Childsi varieties are also intermediate in season and are the product of the old gandavensis and the red-flowered Saundersi — wide 

 expanding, well ranked, running the entire gamut of colors, and the most serviceable of the large groups. 



These groups have been themselves much intermixed and blended of recent years and modern growers have developed or selected 

 individual strains; especially, for example, the ruffled varieties. 



The most recent blending in the garden Gladiolus is G. primulinus, a lax-flowered yellow species, the flower also clearly hooded. 

 Worked on all the other types, this has exerted a very remarkable influence, giving the form known as Primulinus hybrids, distinguished 

 by a new gracefulness of spike, with an orange-salmon. kind of coloring unknown heretofore. 



With the future promising to unfold greater beauty, can the Gladiolus do other than become an even greater glory in our summer 

 garden? 



ALL AROUND THE SEASONS' ACTIVITIES 



MONTAGUE CHAMBERLAIN 



A Tabloid Manual of Cultural Practice from Planting to 

 Harvest and Keeping the Old and New Bulbs Over Winter 



LMOST every one who writes "cultural directions" for 

 the Gladiolus begins with the statement that these bulbs 

 are as easy to grow as Potatoes and should be treated 

 1. in much the same manner. I can not improve on that; 

 so if you know how the farmer handles his crop, follow the same 

 method and you will not go far astray. With whatever method 

 you may begin you are likely to make some changes after a trial, 

 for the different sorts of soil have their peculiarities, and a few 

 varieties of the bulbs require special treatment. And these 

 things are best (perhaps only) learned by experience. 



Besides the men whom the farmers have taught there are 

 others — numerous flower lovers and gardeners — who have no 

 knowledge of either bulb growing or potato growing, and these 

 are the folk in my mind as I write. Such folk will want to know 

 where to plant these bulbs and when, and will require to be told 

 the details of planting and of harvesting as well as how to care 

 for the bulbs during the winter. 



IT IS quite a problem in the little garden to decide just where 

 to put the Gladiolus, for one is haunted by the tradition that 

 these plants must have the full sunshine for the entire day, and 

 there is not always within the garden limits a spot that 

 will insure quite that. Now while it is true that to pro- 

 duce blossoms of the very best possible quality — "exhi- 

 bition blossoms" so-called — it is almost necessary to 

 have the entire day's sunshine, yet you can make up 

 to a very large degree for any lack of sun by enriching 

 the soil heavily with fertilizer and keeping the plants 

 well supplied with moisture. Then even if you can 



not give them clear sunshine for more than half a day, the 

 result will make your labor in growing them quite worth while. 



If the garden plot is large enough to provide space for a peren- 

 nial, bed or border, that is the best place for the Gladiolus. 

 Wherever you may decide to place the bulbs, arrange them in 

 groups rather than in rows. They are awkward and gawky in 

 appearance when paraded alone or in single file and appear 

 much better when massed. 



You will find it most satisfactory to decide that the Gladiolus 

 in the garden are not to be cut — that they are for garden decora- 

 tion only. If you must have some for the decoration of the 

 house, plant those to be used for this purpose in the vegetable 

 garden in rows between the Carrots and such. 



The groups in the garden had better be composed of one 

 variety only. In my day dreams I had pictured beautiful 

 groups of contrasting and harmonious colors — and they did look 

 exceedingly beautiful, in my dreams — but when I tried to make 

 my dreams come true I failed miserably. The trouble was that 

 some of the pesky things would refuse to bloom at the same 

 time as their comrades, and the result was far from satisfactory; 

 so I decided to get the desired contrasts and the harmonious 

 effects with the help of other genera growing near by 

 and with ground-covering plants and supporting 

 shrubbery. 



Feeding 



A GOOD way to get these groups into the ground 

 is to dig a trench of the required size, allowing 

 about four inches for each bulb — four inches from the 



373 



