104 O^e^lower (Brower 
American Gladiolus Society. 
Annual Exhibition at Detroit, Aug. 19th to 21st. 
S INCE our good friend, Frank S. 
Morton, passed to his great re- 
ward, we have been unable to 
induce any of our friends to at- 
tempt to cover a description and give 
their impressions of the annual flower 
show of the American Gladiolus So- 
ciety. We suppose that our readers 
expect something along this line from 
the editor, and we will do the best we 
can to give our impressions of the De- 
troit show. 
It should be noted in our September 
issue a full report of the annual meet- 
ing together with President’s and Sec- 
retary’s reports was given, and also a 
complete list of winners and winning 
varieties in the Open to All Classes. 
We are not able to give a list of win- 
ning varieties in the Non-Commercial 
Classes which are reported in this 
issue as we did not have the time to 
go over the entire exhibit. 
The first and foremost impression of 
the Detroit show was one of hard work. 
If any of our Gladiolus friends have 
any doubt on this subject, let them 
ship 1400 spikes of Gladioli, aggregat- 
ing over one hundred varieties and 
stage them in 66 classes. The editor 
did this with the assistance of his 
youngest son. How then can the im- 
pressions of the editor be very valuable 
in connection with the Detroit show 
when hard work was the chief feature 
of his experience ? 
The show was held in connection 
with the Society of American Florists 
and Ornamental Horticulturists, and 
as Detroit is overcrowded everywhere, 
they were obliged to be satisfied with 
the Arcadia Auditorium as their annual 
meeting place. The S. A. F. & O. H. 
gave the gallery on both sides of the 
hall to the American Gladiolus Society 
for the staging of bloom in connection 
with their annual flower show. This 
gallery was not only inadequate in 
size, but miserably lighted, and the 
arrangements of tables inconvenient. 
We might here suggest that Detroit as 
a convention town is a thing of the 
past so far as we are concerned. Years 
ago Detroit was one of the best con- 
vention towns of the United States, 
but it is one of the worst now because 
of the terrible congestion and over- 
crowding resulting from pressure of a 
metropolitan business in a compar- 
atively small city. 
Before the show we were under the 
impression that Detroit would be one 
of the best possible places for a flower 
show, but the attendance, aside from 
our friends the florists from all over 
the United States attending the S. A. 
F. & O. H. meeting, was small. There 
are doubtless hundreds of flower lovers 
in the city of Detroit and vicinity to 
whom the Gladiolus show would have 
been a feast, but they were not in evi- 
dence, whether the fault was in not 
properly advertising the floral display 
or because people during the month of 
August are at summer resorts, or be- 
cause they are too busy making money 
in the automobile business or other- 
wise, we do not know. But the at- 
tendance of flower growing enthusiasts 
aside from the professional florists was 
not what it should have been. We 
have always thought that the Ameri- 
can Gladiolus Society’s shows were 
never adequately advertised by local 
newspapers. We suppose they expect 
that such shows should be advertised 
only in a paid for way and not as a 
matter of news. 
The display of Gladiolus bloom at 
the Detroit show was excellent every- 
thing considered, and while not as 
great in quantity as some of the former 
shows of the Society, yet the quality of 
bloom was good and the representa- 
tions of high class varieties the very 
best probably that had ever been col- 
lected together in one show. Bad 
weather conditions in the middle west 
prevented many growers from sending 
bloom to the show. 
The display of new varieties and 
seedlings was especially a prominent 
feature of the show and the Joe Cole- 
man seedlings especially were worthy 
of mention. He won not only the 
American Gladiolus Society medal for 
best seedling Gladiolus, but also with 
his own seedlings won first prize in the 
regular classes for best twelve varie- 
ties, three spikes each ; and in the class 
for best twelve varieties, one spike 
each. Such a thing has not been ac- 
complished before so far as we are 
aware. “Joe” certainly has some fine 
seedlings which will doubtless be heard 
from later. 
H. E. Meader came all the way from 
Dover, N. H., and won a number of 
prizes and Honorable Mention. It 
surely shows good sportsmanship when 
a man carries bloom eight hundred 
miles or more to a flower show. His 
display of Lilywhite was awarded Hon- 
orable Mention. 
B. Hammond Tracy won the Mrs. 
Francis King prize for the best and 
most artistically arranged basket of 
fifty spikes of Gladioli, and also the 
Betscher prize for finest basket of 
Primulinus Hybrids. 
The United Bulb Co., Mount Clem- 
ens, Mich., had a fine display of the 
Vos named varieties and these were 
well displayed in a prominent section 
of the exhibit. They were in charge 
of Th. deGroot and P. Vos. They won 
the big prize in Class 1, best twenty 
varieties three spikes each. 
The big prize of the show, the Bur- 
pee Cup, was won by the National 
Bulb Farms, Inc., Benton Harbor, 
Mich., for the largest and best display. 
They showed a large number of the 
best new varieties and novelties. 
The Grullemans Co. display of Prim- 
ulinus Hybrid named varieties was 
one of the features of the show, and 
they were awarded Honorable Mention 
for it. 
J. F. Munsell, Ashtabula, Ohio, se- 
October, 1919 
cured Honorable Mention on his white 
seedling No. 1. Mr. Munsell’s seed- 
ling, Ashtabula, was a prominent fea- 
ture of his display. Ashtabula is cer- 
tainly a fine thing. 
Mrs. Austin brought with her a vase 
of Evelyn Kirtland which was awarded 
Honorable Mention. 
Jelle Roos, Milton, Mass., had a 
beautiful display of the varieties, Mrs. 
Dr. Norton and Mary Fennell, for 
which he was awarded Honorable Men- 
tion. 
Vaughan’s Seed Store, Chicago, had 
a fine display on the main floor of the 
hall. The Vaughan special varieties 
were in evidence and they were awarded 
Honorable Mention. 
The Pittsburg Cut Flower Company, 
Pittsburg, Pa., were awarded Honor- 
able Mention for fine trade display. 
In the Non commercial classes there 
were only two competitors, the St. 
Thomas Horticultural Society and the 
editor. Dr. F. E. Bennett, in charge of 
the St. Thomas exhibition, arrived late 
with his flowers, and not having time 
to enter in the various classes, he only 
entered in competition in two classes, 
one for the Michell Medals, and for 
the Garden Magazine Achievement 
Medal. He secured the award for the 
Garden Magazine Medal and the second 
award for the Michell Medals. Dr. 
Bennett could doubtless have competed 
successfully in a number of the classes 
in which the editor was the only con- 
testant had he properly arranged his 
stock for entering in the different 
classes as listed. 
Candidly we dislike the idea of win- 
ning first prize in a class where there 
is no competition and we are much 
more satisfied to win first prize in com- 
petition with several different entries. 
There should be more entries at the 
annual flower show of the American 
Gladiolus Society. Prizes simply went 
begging at the Detroit show, and there 
was no excuse for it. The Non-com- 
mercial flower growers show mighty 
poor sportsmanship in our opinion. We 
hope that Dr. Bennett will do much 
better at the next A. G. S. show and 
enter all the classes that he can fur- 
nish stock to fill, and, if we are alive 
and well, we promise him the best com- 
petition that we are able to stage. The 
educational value of the exhibiting of 
flowers at the annual A. G. S. flower 
show cannot be over-estimated. In no 
other way can the amateur grower 
know what he is doing as compared 
with other growers and besides, the 
prize list should be an attraction and 
the possibility of winning prizes ought 
to be sufficient inducement to attract 
entries from growers within reasonable 
shipping distance. 
The work of C. R. Hinkle as chair- 5 
man of the Exhibition Committee 
should not be passed without com- 
mendation. Mr. Hinkle worked faith- 
fully to secure the best possible stag- 
ing of flowers under difficult condi- 
tions, and without his help the show 
would not have been the success that 
it was. 
The judging was in capable hands, 
the awards in the Open Classes being 
made by Dr. Frank E. Bennett, St. 
