78 Slower (Brower 
ii hi ii mm hi nil i imi ii i n i nia hi hi mi min mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmii mimmimm 
I WAYSIDE RAMBLINGS 
WILD FLOWERS. 
With cool and occasionally rainy 
weather, my wild flower garden has 
been and is very beautiful this year. 
After the Hepaticas, Bloodroot, Di- 
centra and white and yellow Violets 
came the Nodding Bellwort (uvularia) 
and two kind of Trilliums, the latter 
unusually large this year. My White 
Mertensia bloomed but does not grow 
much yet. The blue Mertensia (Vir- 
ginia Lungwort) is abundant in my 
yard and conveniently dies down and 
can be mowed over soon. 
A very pretty minute flower is the 
Tiarella, with upright racemes of lit- 
tle crown-like white flower. Along 
with some clumps of Hepatica and 
Jack-in-the-Pulpit which I brought from 
the Maquoketa Glens (“ Devil’s Back- 
bone”) last summer, there came up 
unexpectedly some Claytonias or 
Spring Beauty. The wild Geranium or 
Cranesbill is about out of bloom and 
the giant Solomon’s Seal is setting ber- 
ries. These, with the different native 
ferns, give a very graceful and tropical 
appearance to the two beds, one of 
which is a mound around a black oak. 
The Water leaf (hydrophyllum) is 
quite pretty but is a little too willing 
and I pull it up occasionally where it 
interferes too much with other things. 
The Actea or Baneberry has bloomed 
with a foamy panicle of white flowers 
and will soon have large clusters of 
polished dark scarlet berries. One of 
the pretty things which grows abun- 
dantly in places here on the Iowa prai- 
ries is the Shooting Star (Dodecatheon 
Medea) in colors from white to pale 
pink ; it domesticates well as do the 
several kinds of wild Phloxes. There 
will be other things later as the season 
advances, and always something inter- 
esting. I forgot to mention the False 
Solomon’s seal which resembles the 
real in shape of plant but the leaves 
are imbricated and, instead of bells 
along the stem, it has terminal panicles 
of fine white flowers (Smilacina race- 
mosa.) 
Geo. S. Woodruff. 
DIVIDING GLADIOLUS CORMS BEFORE 
PLANTING. 
It takes a real enthusiast to pay a 
dollar for one little Gladiolus corm, 
and, by the way, little is the right 
word, too, in many cases where one 
buys these new and rare varieties. 
Occasionally we are told that a va- 
riety is a great multiplier, but when 
this statement is not made, generally 
it will be found that the increase is 
not large. 
For the past three years I have been 
taking no chances on natural increase, 
but use my pocket knife freely. 
A few years ago I bought a lot of 
conns that were affected with dry rot. 
The husk was taken off of all of them, 
which practice has been kept up ever 
since. After taking off the husk the 
affected part was cut off and the sound 
part planted providing that it contained 
a living eye. They grew all right and 
I drew the conclusion that if a perfectly 
sound corm were divided each piece 
would grow as rapidly as if one side 
were cut away, and further that any 
piece that contained a live eye and a 
portion of the root system would grow 
just as well as half a corm. 
Last spring I cut all corms that cost 
25c. or more and were an inch or 
larger in diameter, into four pieces, 
being careful to see that each piece 
got its share of the base or root as well 
as a live eye. You cannot, of course, 
depend on getting four flower spikes, 
but my experience is that you will aver- 
age three spikes to a corm divided into 
four pieces, and you will have four 
good corms at digging time. Here- 
after I shall cut the 1 in. to If in. 
corms into three pieces each only. 
Before I began dividing my corms 
at planting time my limit for purchase 
price was 50c. per corm, but this year 
I am planting corms that cost as high 
as $2 each. 
I paid but little attention to cormels 
generally, but I am of the opinion that 
I will get at least as many in number 
as if the corms were planted whole, 
and besides the cormels will be much 
larger. 
T. B. Tippett. 
BLOODROOT AND SCILLA SIBERICA. 
I had a combination of flowers in my 
garden this spring which appealed to 
me strongly, and I thought it might 
interest your readers. 
I have a quantity of Bloodroot which 
I dug in the woods. I also have some 
Scilla Siberica. These bloom at the 
same time in April and the blue and 
white flowers make a very pretty com- 
bination. 
I am going to get more Bloodroot 
and plant the Scillas right among 
them. They are right in the shrub- 
bery, but bloom before the leaves are 
out and are not hidden from view. 
T. A. Kenning. 
MARKING LABELS FOR THE GARDEN. 
Noting the different opinions ex- 
pressed from time to time in regard to 
the best kind of labels to be used in 
field or garden, and as no one has yet 
mentioned the kind that I prefer and 
use exclusively, I am sending you a 
sample of it. You will note that it is a 
piece of card-board about If x 2f inches 
with a fine cord looped into an eyelet 
at one end, the cord being long enough 
so that it can be looped around the 
flower stalk. The samples I am send- 
ing have seen one season’s use and are 
not much the worse for wear. In fact, 
I usually expect to use them several 
seasons, though that is a minor con- 
sideration as they can be bought 
cheaply, 1 think for about 15c. per hun- 
dred. There are both larger and 
August, 1919 
smaller sizes if preferred. This label 
can readily be looped around the stalk 
of almost any plant or flower, and it 
comes with the string inserted. It can 
be written upon one side or both sides 
with an ordinary lead pencil, and while 
the writing is quite durable, yet it can 
be erased if desired. This label leaves 
almost nothing to be desired. It is 
waterproof, easily attached and easily 
removed, and will cost but little to lay 
in a new stock every year if necessary. 
Wilbur A. Christy. 
DOUBLE GLADIOLUS FLOWERS. 
Last year I reported to The Flower 
Grower that Sulphur King had brought 
forth double flowers in 1917. This 
corm was set aside, but it did not show 
unusual flowers in 1918. 
However, an unusual experience with 
Pink Beauty which the accompanying 
photograph shows may be interesting. 
When this spike was about to open it 
was seen that it was not normal and 
suspecting that it would throw double 
flowers we prepared to photograph it. 
There were seven blooms on the 
stalk in all, three of them being double 
and one of them had two blooms on 
one stem, a twin flower. The double 
blooms had from eleven to sixteen per- 
fect petals. 
Except for additional loveliness there 
was nothing abnormal or misshapen 
about the blooms. 
We have labeled this corm fortesting 
this year and will report on same. 
Estelle M. Gilbert. 
TIME FOR TAKING UP DAFFODILS. 
Daffodils Victoria and Emperor should 
do well in any good garden soil or in 
sod if planted at the right time, and if 
good bulbs when planted, and they 
should continue to bloom and be good 
bulbs if not moved at the wrong time. 
They should be planted in the fall, and 
should not be taken up in fall, winter 
or spring. The time to take them up 
is early summer when the leaves die 
down. 
B. C. Auten. 
