August, 1919 
TULIP CULTURE. 
I have read with interest the answer 
to “V. E.” by Mr. Clute in the July 
number. 
If the April freezes are responsible 
for the trouble referred to I believe 
there must also have been contributory 
causes. My Darwins budded very 
early this season and one of my neigh- 
bors had them showing buds early in 
March. They repeatedly froze in 
March and April, the leaves in the 
morning sometimes having a watery 
appearance, yet they all revived and 
not a plant became diseased or died. 
Both myself and my neighbor had 
some of the finest blooms I ever saw ; 
some of them with stems thirty inches 
tall. 
I think perhaps Mr. Clute hit the 
right idea in his suggestion to “treat 
’em rough.” The only good thing I 
do for them is to have the soil in which 
I plant them deeply cultivated and well 
drained. For the sake of having good 
blooms I rake in a little fertilizer and 
wood ashes between the rows two or 
three weeks before blooming time. I 
keep the beds weeded during the sum- 
mer and in the seasons when I do not 
intend to dig the bulbs I grow annual 
plants among them. 
I have large numbers of Gladioli and 
in the fall I scatter the stems of these 
in a thin layer over the tulip beds. 
This is all the protection I give them 
and I do not do this until about the 
time the ground freezes up for the 
winter. This covering is removed just 
as soon as possible in the spring. 
Under these conditions I do not be- 
lieve April freezing will do any harm 
but it may be that under different treat- 
ment or soil conditions they might be 
more susceptible to this freezing. 
I believe that mulching with manure 
is bad for tulips and that whatever 
covering they have should be put on 
very late, since the object is not to 
protect from deep freezing but from 
too early thawing in the spring. 
Geo. A. Whitney. 
DAYLIGHT SAVING. 
I read with interest Chas. Gersdorff’s 
article on this subject in The Flower 
Grower for July. I most heartily 
agree with his views about the desira- 
bility of those who work in office, 
laboratory, store or factory spending 
an extra hour in the fresh air and sun- 
light. He thinks the farmer could re- 
adjust his working hours without great 
inconvenience. 
It never seems to occur to such peo- 
ple as Mr. Gersdorff that it would be 
far easier for them to readjust their 
man-made hours of labor than it is for 
the farmer to work against the hours 
of nature. A man who works in office 
or laboratory can start his work and 
quit an hour later or an hour earlier 
than usual and accomplish as much as 
heretofore. But the farmer cannot 
work in the hayfield, tobacco patch, 
garden or do many other things before 
the dew has dried, and pushing the 
clocks ahead an hour sets the farmer 
just that much behind. There is no 
(Brower 
way in which the farmer can make the 
dew dry off an hour earlier, force the 
hens to go to roost by the new time, 
induce the cows to come from the 
pasture before the sun gets well into 
the west unless he goes after them. 
The farmers put up with the loss 
and inconvenience of the daylight sav- 
ing law as a matter of patriotism, be- 
lieving it to be a war emergency 
measure, but now that the emergency 
is past they have shown their almost 
unanimous opposition to its continu- 
ance as a permanent measure. 
Edwin C. Powell. 
stalnaker’s color harmony and 
TINT BOOK. 
In your March issue there appeared 
an advertisement of Stalnaker’s “Gla- 
diolus Color Harmony and Tint Book,” 
and I lost no time in writing for a 
copy. It is the first attempt at color 
classification of the Gladiolus I have 
come across. The author states that 
it represents four years’ work, and I 
can quite understand it. It appears to 
be a straightforward attempt to tackle 
a difficult subject and the result is a 
most helpful guide. The lists include 
about 250 varieties, of which nearly 
four-fifths are described and priced. 
Of course, many names new to me are 
included but, on the other hand, most 
of the well known varieties are to be 
found in the catalogue. There was 
one name Marie which attracted my 
attention under Class E, salmon pink. 
This name I have always associated 
with a blue variety. 
Smilax. 
UNUSUALLY SHORT TIME FROM PLANT- 
ING TO BLOOMING OF GLADIOLI. 
In the July number of The Flower 
Grower I noticed a list of Gladioli giv- 
ing length of time from planting to 
blooming. We have lowered our own 
record this year, and also any record I 
have ever seen published. 
Pink Progression planted May 16th 
opened her first blooms on July 4. 
While this morning (July 7) Kunderd’s 
Primulinus Butterfly planted at the 
same time is open in all its glory. Sev- 
eral spikes of Pink Beauty will be open 
tomorrow. Jessie, Halley and Roanoke, 
are showing color, while Mrs. F. Pendle- 
ton, Matthew Crawford and others are 
throwing up numerous strong spikes. 
These varieties were all planted the 
15th, 16th and 17th of May in ordinary 
garden soil, and have had no special 
care, no fertilizer, and were not wa- 
tered at any time. 
All varieties while planted late are 
making a fine growth and will appar- 
ently come into bloom in an unusually 
short time. 
Walter J. Whiteley, 
(Central Michigan.) 
Note by the Editor — 
Mr. Whiteley 's results above indicated are 
unusual. It is doubtless owing to the un- 
seasonable heat of June that the varieties 
indicated have come into bloom in so short 
79 
a time. It will be noted that Pink Progres- 
sion thus has made a record of forty- nine 
days from planting to blooming, while sev- 
eral other varieties are only a few days be- 
hind. 
It might be pointed out in this connection 
that the various records which have ap- 
peared from time to time in The Flower 
Grower can none of them be taken as 
positive and absolute for the reason that 
weather conditions, condition of corms when 
planted, etc., all have their influence. 
DATES OF JULY BLOOMING GLADIOLI. 
The following are varieties of Gladioli 
that bloomed with me in July, and as I 
have records covering three years on 
the most of them I am glad to furnish 
it. May be able to furnish you later 
reports of the August blooming varie- 
ties and also a further list of Septem- 
ber blooming varieties : 
1916 
1917 
1918 
D. 
M. 
I). 
M. 
D. 
M. 
Alice Tiplady 
28 
7 
1 
8 
28 
7 
Altair __ ... 
25 
7 
23 
7 
Anita 
31 
7 
28 
7 
30 
7 
Ariadne 
31 
7 
29 
7 
Arlon 
30 
7 
Astra 
30 
7 
Berkshire 
29 
7 
9 
8 
31 
7 
Canonite . _ 
29 
7 
24 
7 
Countess Torby. 
27 
7 
21 
7 
Duke of Richmond __ 
31 
7 
13 
8 
29 
7 
Due de Massa _ 
25 
7 
26 
7 
Early Sunrise __ 
20 
7 
22 
7 
Erectus 
29 
7 
29 
7 
Elberton.. 
8 
8 
24 
7 
21 
7 
Faust 
28 
7 
21 
7 
24 
7 
Forain 
24 
7 
21 
7 
Fragonard 
28 
7 
30 
7 
Firefly. _ 
31 
7 
22 
7 
29 
7 
Golden West.. 
31 
7 
29 
7 
Halley . . _ 
19 
7 
18 
7 
14 
7 
Incontestable. _ _ 
26 
7 
22 
7 
La Nuit _ . . 
1 
8 
26 
7 
31 
7 
Lily Lehmann _ 
30 
7 
29 
7 
22 
7 
Letitia 
22 
7 
7 
8 
27 
7 
Lily white . 
24 
7 
3 
8 
22 
7 
Linton __ _ 
26 
7 
23 
7 
Master Wietse 
28 
7 
3 
8 
28 
7 
Mrs. R. Wordsworth 
27 
7 
24 
7 
25 
7 
Myrtle 
31 
7 
21 
7 
22 
7 
Maculatus 
29 
7 
27 
7 
Mary Pickford. __ 
26 
7 
14 
8 
19 
7 
Nopal ... 
29 
7 
Nova _ . _ . _ _ _ 
25 
7 
Prince of Wales . 
19 
7 
22 
7 
19 
7 
Phoebus _ 
26 
7 
2 
8 
28 
7 
Pink Beauty __ 
5 
7 
8 
7 
4 
7 
Rev. Ewbank 
27 
7 
23 
7 
23 
7 
Salmon Excelsior 
28 
7 
24 
7 
31 
7 
Salmoneus 
21 
7 
24 
7 
Saphir 
25 
7 
27 
7 
Sedan _ „ _ ... 
1 
8 
30 
7 
28 
7 
Seneca . 
26 
7 
28 
7 
Topaz _ _ ... 
29 
7 
Vega . . _ 
29 
7 
27 
7 
Zenobia 
29 
7 
Jean Dieulafoy 
30 
7 
28 
7 
Smilax (England.) 
PLANTING USES OF GLADIOLI. 
Requiring but little space, they are 
just the flowers to use as fillers for 
bare spots in perennial beds and open 
spaces in newly planted shrubbery 
plantations. Planted in groups of three, 
six, or a dozen or more all of one color 
they are very effective in adding life 
and gayety to such plantings and in 
relieving the barren appearance. 
H. W. Groschner. 
