36 ^l)e Slower (Brower 
WAYSIDE RAMBLINGS 
AN AMATEUR’S EXPERIENCE WITH NEW 
GLADIOLI. 
To the Editor: — 
Ever since I read an account of the 
Gladiolus Show in Buffalo, and your 
astounding achievements, it has been 
my intention to write to you. 
Now, that you took a first prize with 
Pink Perfection , I hope you will be good 
and take back the strictures you passed 
upon this lovely lady. What if she 
does some times (even many times) 
throw crooked stems ? When she does 
bloom rightly, is she not perfection ? 
Do you want color ? Hers is the love- 
liest pink found this side of sunset 
clouds. Do you want grace and size 
of flowers ? None excel her in this 
respect. Do you want numbers of 
bloom all open at one time ? Well, she 
is certainly there with the goods. What 
if Cleopatra was some times wayward, 
was she not Cleopatra still, with kisses 
each worth an empire ? 
For the first time in my life I was 
able this year to make a try out on the 
Gladiolus almost to my heart’s content. 
Not quite, however, for who ever did 
plant all the flowers he wanted to ? I 
veritably believe that if we had the 
whole earth for our garden, we would 
sigh for an annex garden in the moon 
or in the rich, warm valleys of Venus 
or some other planet. 
Like all other ventures with flowers 
this try out was a blend of joys and 
disappointments. My soil is horrible, a 
stiff, putty-like clay that in spite of lib- 
eral applications of fertilizers and sand 
will not become ideal. Hence the tender 
and more delicate varieties did not do 
well. Others disappointed. In the reds. 
Red Amarillas, Rajah and Red Emperor 
did not come up and Liebesfeuer bloomed 
while I was away. Faust, Velvet King, 
Mrs. Fryer, Scarlet Velvet and Cracker- 
jack all flourished and bloomed well, 
but not one of them, in my opinion, is 
a first class flower. They are either 
inferior in color or number of blooms 
open at one time or something else. 
The only first class red I have grown is 
War. With me it is perfection. Tall, 
stately, vigorous, glowing and glorious 
in color ; with large sized and many 
blooms it stands out in the garden a 
vivid object of compelling beauty. 
Would that I could find a scarlet like it; 
would that Princeps, that perfection in 
single blooms, would equal it in the 
number of blooms open at one time; 
then, indeed, would we have a Gladi- 
olus worth while. Why, O why, does 
not some flower magician take hold of 
this Gladiolus and make it get a hump 
on itself ? 
In the pinks nearly every one was 
all that could be desired. No matter 
how fine the newer and, to me, more 
attractive varieties were, visitors to the 
garden invariably raved over Halley, 
America, Mrs. Francis King and Pan- 
ama. Myrtle, in spite of clay soil flour- 
ished and were delicately and daintily 
beautiful. I planted them in a row 
about twenty-five feet long and mingled 
with them Europa. These two kinds 
bloomed about the same time and I 
wish you could have seen the effect ; it 
could not be surpassed. Eveyln Kirt- 
land and Gretchen Zang were all that 
Mrs. Austin and Mr. Joe Coleman 
claimed for them and it would be im- 
possible to have too many of them. 
In the whites, I tried Peace, White 
Excelsior, Candidum, Augusta, Lily Leh- 
mann and Chicago White. Peace, White 
Excelsior, Candidum and Chicago White 
have gone for me into the trash pile. 
The muddy, dirty purplish throats and 
occasional suffusion all over the petals 
of this same dingy hue ruin them. 
Europa was perfection, almost snow 
white, large waxen individual blooms 
and many open at one time. My clay 
seemed to suit it and it was in every 
way a delight. Lily Lehmann I have 
long known and I almost agree with 
Mr. B. Hammond Tracy that it is the 
best white. When I place it in a vase 
with Baron Hulot the combination is 
so effective I entirely agree with him. 
But when I look at a vase of Europa 
and Myrtle I think Europa is the premier 
white. So there you are. Itishardto 
decide, is it not ? 
It is no use to speak of Mrs. Pendle- 
ton. Is not her fame world wide and 
deserved ? One magnificent Gladiolus 
that has been on the market for a long 
time surprises me by not having at- 
tracted more attention. This is Mr. 
Hundred’s Pride of Goshen. I find this 
one of the very finest Gladioli on the 
market. Its color, size and number of 
blooms open are all satisfactory. 
I also tried some of Mr. Kunderd’s 
more expensive corms. They were 
magnificent. I do believe that Mrs. 
Dr. Norton is the loveliest flower in the 
Gladiolus world. Purple Glory is a 
glory indeed and Mona Lisa holds Mrs. 
Dr. Norton a close second. But my ! 
who can afford to plant many of these 
when he has to pay a dollar and a hall 
and two dollars a corm? They are 
lovely I admit, but they are not that 
much lovelier than others that sell for 
that much per fifty or a hundred. 
I tried a dozen Primulinus Hybrids 
from Kunderd, from Betscher, from 
Gage and from John Lewis Childs. All 
were excellent, but I believe if there 
was any superiority it was with those 
of the Gage dozen. Their colors were 
more dainty. One of these was a pure 
white with a Mrs. Pendleton throat. I 
hope I can grow it in quantities as it 
deserves to be put upon the market. 
Another very lovely Gladiolus was 
Madam Mounet Sully. I see it was 
among the prize winners. The article 
you published from Holland says it is 
a weak grower. How have you found 
it? It would be a pity if the Holland 
writer were correct, for it is too lovely 
to disappear from the market. In the 
purples, I find that Baron Hulot if 
planted early is fine, but if planted late 
is poor, as it cannot endure the heat. 
Empress of India does well here and 
April, 1919 
does not compare unfavorably with 
even such top-notchers as Purple Glory. 
Herada, too, is another good thing. It 
stands the heat well and is, I believe, 
destined to become as much of a stand- 
by as Mrs. Francis King or America. 
I also had two hundred of Mr. Kun- 
derd’s mixtures. They were astonish- 
ing. Each and every one of them was 
worth a place in any garden. Many 
of them surpassed his high priced 
named varieties. One of them was 
somewhat similar to, but I believe, even 
more beautiful than the famous Mrs. 
Dr. Norton. Hats off to Kunderd, for 
no hybridizer has produced more lovely 
Gladioli than he. Long may he live 
and grow Gladioli at Goshen, even if 
others do have to come sometimes and 
pick out his loveliest and bring them 
before a pleased public. 
T. Dabney Marshall. 
IRIS COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 
With the arrival of the January issue 
I determined to write you of the satis- 
factory appearance of your advertis- 
ing columns, the February issue merely 
confirmed the impression, and the re- 
cently arrived March number demands 
a note as well. In all three the ads 
have an unusually clean-cut, notice- 
compelling presentation. 
The constant reference to the Iris in 
your pages is, of course, of great in- 
terest to us as growers of Iris, but 
Mr. Rollin’s articles, to me, seem to 
discourage the amateur with difficulties 
of seed raising, that we have not met 
with. Inasmuch as it is our practice to 
transplant the seedlings when about 
an inch high, the soil of the seed bed 
need not be so thoroughly enriched ; 
we give only ordinary garden prepara- 
tion, mixing well-decayed leaf-mould, 
applying lime, and raking smoothly. 
We also use a shaded site, so that all 
in all, it is not a very good place for 
rank growing weeds. In the past we 
have planted the seeds in recorded 
squares as soon as ripe and dry but 
owing to the germination of many this 
last fall, we consider that late October 
planting may prove more successful. 
With us fully a third, or often two- 
thirds of the plants, bloom the year 
after germination ; that is, two years 
from the cross. We have not as- 
sembled our records of germination 
but of the flowered seedlings (some 
thousands) 20% or over have proved 
worthy of further trial, about 50% as 
good as many of the named varieties, 
and really less than the remaining 30% 
distinctly unpleasing. When you re- 
alize that hardly any two are alike, 
you can see the fascination of rais- 
ing Iris seedlings, but it must be 
remembered that these percentages 
are largely based on the results of 
selective crossings. I should not ven- 
ture to say that good results would 
come from carelessness in any part of 
the work but it will take but little care . 
to raise a lot of interest. Mr. Rollins 
speaks from long experience, but to 
the beginner the expression of his ex- 
perience may seem unnecessarily dis- 
couraging. In reality they are as easy 
to raise as parsnips— a carefully se- 
