THE GLADIOLUS. 
The gladiolus is the best of all our summer blooming plants for yielding cut 
flowers. It makes a long season, from July to November, and furnishes an abund- 
ance of beautiful blossoms which display, in countless combinations, nearly all 
colors and shades, from white and delicate pink, lavender and yellow to the richest 
red, garnet and purple. 
CULTIVATION. The ground should be prepared as for potatoes, ^d fur- 
rowed about six inches deep. If the bulbs are to be planted in rows, the rows 
should be three feet apart. The bulbs should be set about once their own diameter 
from each other in the row, and covered with four or five inches of soil. This 
depth is required to brace the plants, and keep them from being blown over in the 
growing season. This is a matter of importance, for any injury to the foliage has 
its effect upon the new bulb. For the plant to be blown over or partly broken off, 
even if straightened up again, is damaging. Another way of favoring the bulb and 
increasing its size, is by cutting off the spike as soon as the first flower opens. 
This lessens the liability to injury by wind, and also relieves the bulb of the burden 
of bringing its flowers into bloom, and the greater exhaustion of ripening seed, thus 
giving it the best possible chance to develop and mature.. The spike goes on 
blooming and brings out its last flower just as well in water as on the plant, and 
even better, for it is thus protected from excessive heat, from being bruised by the 
wind, and from the ravages of insect enemies. When cutting off the spike, take no 
foliage except the two small leaves nearest the lowest blossom. Every leaf on the 
plant has its part in building up the new bulb. Late in the fall dig the bulbs and 
place them in a shed or out-building for a few days to dry, leaving the foliage at- 
tached, as it draws the moisture out of the bulb and expedites the seasoning process. 
Then cut off the tops, put the bulbs into baskets, boxes or crates, not more than 
three or four inches deep, and store them in the cellar where they will not freeze, 
but not too near the furnace, lest they dry too mvich. 
It is easy to find stock that is higher priced than mine, but there is no better 
mixture in the market at any price than my XX. Even the X stock which I sold 
at six dollars per thousand was superior to some that was many times dearer. The 
excellence of my XX stock is the result of thirty-five years of pains-taking effort to 
improve the gladiolus. I have bought most of the choice named varieties that came 
into market, and obtained many fine seedlings from specialists, besides growing 
hundreds of thousands — perhaps millions — of seedlings myself from seed produced 
by noted growers in America and Europe. From this mass of material I have gradu- 
ally eliminated every thing but the best, and my present stock probably represents 
no more than a small fraction of one per cent, of the varieties that I have grown. 
The seedlings that I grow from time to time are sold in a class by themselves 
as seedlings, after they have bloomed and the very finest have been selected to add 
to my XX stock. I bloomed quite a quantity of these last year, and include them 
in my price list below. 
I=» FR I C E S . 
BY UXI'RBSS, NOT PBEPAJD. 
12 
100 
lOOO 
XX, First Size — One and one-half inches in diameter and up, 
1 .50 
fS.OO 
125.00 
Second Size — One to one and one-half inches in diatneter, - 
.40 
2.25 
18.00 
Seedlings. First Size, ------ 
.25 
1.50 
Second Size, ------- 
.20 
1.25 
10.00 
If wanted b)- mail, add ten cents a dozen for first size, and five for second. 
Six and fifty at dozen and hundred rates, respectivel}'. 
M. CRAWFORD. 
