October, 1919 
107 
Obe Slower (Brower 
[This department of The Flower Grower is intended to be one of its most helpful and 
valuable features. All questions asked in good faith and which are of general interest will 
have careful attention. The full name and address of the writer must be given, but not 
for publication.] — Editor. 
Suggestions for Planting 
and Cultivating Gladioli. 
To the Editor 
I notice your reply in an old issue of The 
Flower Grower advising an inquirer to 
plant full size Gladiolus corms as close as 
two inches in the row and in double rows. 
I will need more space this year as I am ex- 
pecting to increase my plantings. I want to 
confirm my understanding of your advice as 
above, and ask if your constant experience 
justifies placing corms so close together? 
I have been planting four inches apart, but 
if they will do as well two inches apart, I 
will help myself to this additional planting 
room. 
Have also been taught by experience to 
avoid double rows as in the narrow space 
between the rows it is difficult to prevent 
weeds from growing up. How do you man- 
age that or have you ground that does not 
produce many weeds? 
I have been growing for blooms, but it 
seems to me that comparatively few cormels 
are produced especially of those varieties 
which are not heavy producers. Do growers 
who raise bulbs for market sell the flowers 
as well ? 
W. G. N. 
Answer:— Gladiolus corms can be 
planted to good advantage as close as 
two inches in the row and in double 
rows. We plant in a trench made with 
a hand hoe. We start the trench with 
a wheel hoe run alongside of a planting 
line stretched tightly so as to give a 
straight row. After throwing out all 
the soil that can be conveniently 
thrown out with the wheel hoe, we use 
an ordinary hand hoe which makes a 
finished flat-bottom trench about six 
inches wide and five inches to six inches 
deep. The trench should not be less 
than five inches deep for first size corms 
and six inches is preferable in light soil. 
A flat bottom trench of this kind makes 
the double row system a very prac- 
ticable one and makes deep planting 
comparatively easy. 
Close planting in a double row neces- 
sarily means that the ground should 
be rich in fertility. If there is any 
question about the fertility of the 
ground, wider spacing is desirable. 
Close planting, of course, will not give 
as good results in size of bloom nor in 
increase in size of corms and number 
of cormels as the wider spacing, but 
when one has his soil well built up in 
fertility and good results can be had 
with the close planting, why use the 
wider scheme of planting, meaning 
more labor, more territory to work 
over and greater loss of space? 
The double rows are somewhat diffi- 
cult to cultivate between, but a rather 
large part of the cultivation is done 
anyway before the sprouts get above 
the ground. After the plants are sev- 
eral inches high, the space between the 
double row can be cultivated with a 
narrow hand tool or a cut-down garden 
rake, and the work can be done in a 
very short time. I use a sort of a claw 
with five teeth mounted on a broom 
handle and it works well. It is not 
practicable, of course, to cultivate be- 
tween the double rows after the stalks 
get to be eighteen inches or two feet in 
height, and it is really not necessary to 
do so as weed seeds have mostly ger- 
minated by that time, and cultivation 
between the rows is all that is neces- 
sary. 
Raking over the ground two or three 
times or more after planting, with an 
ordinary garden rake before the Gladi- 
olus sprouts begin to show above 
ground will kill many weeds and does 
more good than three times the work 
later on after the weeds get well es- 
tablished. 
Yes, people who grow bulbs for 
market also sell the cut flowers and 
they may be considered a by-product 
in this case, and when the spikes are 
cut for market it does not weaken the 
bulb in the least, providing the corms 
are planted early, and sufficient grow- 
ing season follows the cutting of the 
flower spike. It is understood, of 
course, that when cutting the flower 
spike very little foliage should be cut 
with the spike, and at least four good 
leaves must be left on the plant to ma- 
ture the corm. 
Madison Cooper. 
Planting and Caring 
for Darwin Tulips. 
To the Editor 
I would like some advice in regard to 
Tulips. I have some of the Darwins that 
have bloomed two seasons. After they were 
through blooming last spring I dug them up 
and they have lain on the floor of the corn 
crib since. How should they be treated from 
now on? Simply cut off the tops, divide 
them, and put them in the ground again ? 
If so, when should they be set out ? 
When I got them originally it was very 
late in the fall or the beginning of winter and 
I covered the ground with manure to keep it 
from freezing and then set them out. I am 
only an amateur trying to raise a few flow- 
ers for our own gratification or a few friends 
or to decorate the church “on a Sunday.” 
(Western New York.) F. G. 
Answer To secure the best results 
in New York State, Tulips should be 
planted out late in October or during 
November. Set the bulbs about 4 inches 
deep in well prepared porous soil, firm- 
ing the bed and covering with a layer 
of stable litter which may be removed 
in the spring if it interferes with the 
growth of the plants. 
When planted in a sunny, sandy, 
well drained bed, Darwin Tulips, which 
are more satisfactory than many 
of the earlier blooming varieties, may 
be left in the ground several years 
without being disturbed. Resetting is 
necessary when, after 3 or 4 years 
of favorable growth, the bulbs become 
crowded. They may then be carefully 
lifted and planted four or five inches 
apart. The best time to do this is dur- 
ing June, or if preferred the bulbs may 
be dried off and stored in paper bags 
in a dry, cool place and replanted in 
the autumn. 
Tulips are never at their best if 
planted in a very shady, moist place 
and if left in the ground in such a 
situation the bulbs are apt to rot, par- 
ticularly after a rainy spring. Where 
a favorable location cannot be supplied 
the bulbs should be lifted after the 
foliage has ripened and the bulbs have 
had ample time to mature, and stored 
in paper bags, as above suggested until 
planting time. 
Bertha Berbert-Hammond. 
Orchids in the Garden. 
In shady, damp places ferns are about the 
only plants that will thrive and interesting, 
permanent beds can be made of the hardy 
sorts. A few native orchids, however, will 
produce an unusual bed in this situation, so 
difficult to handle successfully. 
If the soil is heavy, it will be necessary to 
make it more open by working in sand, if 
orchids are to be grown. Peat or soil from 
the woods is better than sand, if it is to be 
had. 
When the bed has been prepared plant 
Lady Slippers, as these enjoy shade and 
moisture. All the following are good : 
Cypripedium spectabile, leaves six to eight 
inches long, bearing large white flowers ; 
shaded delicate rose, with globular lip of 
rosy carmine, flowering in July. It is com- 
mon in bogs and rich, low woods. It is 
easily multiplied by means of divisions. 
Cypripedium acaule is another beautiful 
native orchid, to be found growing in moist 
or sandy ground, usually in the shade of 
evergreens. The large handsome flowers 
are of a delicate soft rose. C. candidum 
grows in the Western States in bogs and on 
low prairies. The white flowers are not 
large but pretty. C. pubescens is the brownish 
purple and yellow lady’s slipper, found grow- 
ing in low woods and bogs, flowering in the 
early summer. C. parviflorum has smaller 
flowers than pubescens, though the yellow 
and brown flowers are somewhat fragrant. 
Then there is the orchis spectabilis with 
glossy leaves, three to five inches long, grow- 
ing from a fleshy fibrous root. The flowers 
are pink-purple and white, produced in May 
and June. The plants are to be found from 
New Brunswick south to Georgia and as far 
West as Missouri, in rich woods. 
These will form a rather unique bed and, 
providing they have sufficient moisture and 
shade, will succeed at the north side of the 
house or beneath trees. Sufficient moisture 
does not mean a drenching one day and 
drying up for a week, but keeping the soil 
constantly moist. 
The flowers of these plants are almost as 
beautiful as the choicest greenhouse orchids 
