354 On the Culture of the African Gladioli, §c. 



Gladiolus tristis is decidedly the hardiest species; its 

 leaves resist the severest frosts; and even the long continuance 

 of frost and snow, last winter, has only turned the leaves a 

 little yellow, and cut their points. It flowers in the open 

 ground in May, June, and July, and I have left bulbs of it, 

 unmoved, in the border four or five years. I have flowered 

 G. hirsutus in September, in the open ground, but it requires 

 a more sandy soil, and its bulbs become cankered in my 

 peat, which is very rich with rotten wood. 



The best way of treating Gladioli, which are to be flowered 

 in pots (at least the free growing sorts) is, whenever the 

 bulbs are potted, to plunge the pots about eight inches 

 under ground in the peat border, and raise them nearer the 

 surface in the spring, as soon as the very severe frosts of 

 winter are over: or if placed at once nearer the surface 

 in a bed, to spread moss, leaves,* or saw-dust, over the 

 bed. Many of the other Cape Ensatae succeed well with the 

 same treatment, without any care, especially Watsonia Meri- 

 ana, Ixia flexuosa, and Trichonema roseum. Ixia longiflora 

 is very hardy, and flowers finely in the border, but prefers 

 a more sandy compost. 



I am persuaded that the African Gladioli will become great 

 favorites with florists, when their beauty in the open border, 

 the facility of their culture, and the endless variety which may 

 be produced from seed by blending the several species, are 

 fully known, nor will they be found to yield in beauty to the 

 Tulip and Ranunculus. 



Some years ago, when I lived at Mitcham, in Surrey, I 



* The leaves of the horse chestnut, which are large and not easily shifted by 

 the wind, form an excellent protection for beds of tender bulbs in the winter.. 



