THE GLADIOLUS. 



381 



•size, and varieties differ much as to the quantity they produce. 

 Thus I have taken as many as a hundred of these little bulbs 

 from one root of Horace Vernet, while I have grown others for 

 years without obtaining a single one from it, and this to some 

 extent explains why some sorts rapidly fall in price, and others 

 retain theirs for years. 



The cultivation of the Gladiolus has been written about a 

 good deal, and Mr. Kelway, in his exhaustive paper read last 

 year, detailed the method of culture adopted by a large grower — 

 for in truth he is a big grower who has 24 acres — and I do not 

 in the least intend to encroach on his preserves when I detail 

 the method of culture adopted by an amateur whose collection 

 <loes not comprise more than seven or eight hundred bulbs. I 

 will begin with the soil. There have been many opinions mooted 

 •on this matter, and experience has considerably modified our 

 opinions. The French growers say that a good market-garden soil 

 is best suited for them ; this would, I suppose, mean a good 

 friable loam, but 1 think that a good stiff loam, provided it be 

 well drained, is the most suitable. Like all bulbs, they very much 

 -dislike stagnant water about their roots, and consequently it is 

 an absolute necessity that the drainage be good. This being 

 provided for, a soil that is well suited to Strawberries and Eoses 

 is one which will do equally well for them. It ought to be open, 

 and not under the shade of trees. My plan is in the autumn to put 

 .a good quantity of old hotbed manure on the ground, and then 

 what is called bastard trench it. This places the manure about 

 nine inches below the surface, so that in planting none of it 

 touches the bulbs — an important point. During the winter, if 

 frosts occur it is well to turn the soil up roughly, so that it may 

 be sweetened in the process, and become in better condition for 

 planting when suitable weather occurs. 



I generally plant during the first or second week in March, 

 according to the state of the ground. It is much better to defer 

 it than to plant when the ground is sodden — not, I think, that it 

 makes much difference as to their time of flowering, whether 

 you plant early or late. There are certain kinds which are sure 

 to come early whenever you plant, and other late-blooming kinds 

 refuse to bloom early — plant when you will. Now and then a 

 single root of these may come out of its ordinary course, but, as 

 a rule, they come true to time. Thus Shakespeare, even in this 



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