112 
November, 1919 
t3fye. Slower (Brower 
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Slower (Brower 
1 PUBLISHED MONTHLY ON THE FIRST OF THE MONTH BY 1 
MADISON COOPER, CALCIUM, N.Y. 
FOR BOTH AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL FLOWER GROWERS 
I Subscription Price : OUR MOTTO: Canadian and Foreign = 
5 $1.00 per year, Special favors to none, and a Subscription Price 1 
1 3 years for $2.00. square deal to all. $1.25 per year. | 
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Growers are invited to contribute articles or notes over their own 
signatures, but the Editor reserves the right to reject anything which 
in his judgment is not conducive to the general welfare of the business. 
Co j? yrif/ht by Madison Cooper 
The contents of THE FLOWER GROWER, formerly "The Modern Gladiolus 
Grower” are covered by general copyright. Permission is given to editors to use not 
more than one-third of any article providing proper credit is given at the beginning or 
end of such quotation, as follows: “ From THE FLOWER GROWER, Calcium, N. Y." 
Special permission necessary for reprinting illustrations, long extracts or articles entire. 
•IIIIIIIIHIIIIIIII Illlllllllllllllllllllllllllll IIMIII INI I IMMIMIMM Hill 
Vol. VI November, 1919 No. 11 
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“ He who sows the ground with care and diligence acquires a 
greater stock of religious merit than he could gain by the 
repetition of ten thousand prayers!'— Zoroaster. 
Save The Wastes. 
The high cost of fertilizers during the past year or two 
and the probability of continued high prices, make it ex- 
tremely desirable that all waste garden materials should be 
saved, and we have called attention to this before. A rub- 
bish pit in an out-of-the-way part of the garden, perhaps 
screened by some tall growth such as sun-flowers, or if 
made a permanent thing, it may be screened by a neat 
hedge, can be made to pay big dividends. All garden rub- 
bish which is readily decomposed, like weeds, lawn trim- 
mings, leaves, trimmings and refuse from the kitchen gar- 
den, and, in fact, any waste vegetable matter which is 
comparatively soft and easily rotted can be made into a 
compost which is worth good American dollars as a fer- 
tilizer. Such a compost if built in layers ; First, wastes from 
the garden, then stable manure, is readily rotted and espe- 
cially valuable, and it will afford a cheaply acquired supply 
of nitrogenous fertilizer. 
Don’t burn fallen leaves in the autumn nor throw weeds, 
garden wastes, etc., on the dump where they become a 
nuisance, but compost them, and allow them to rot into the 
condition of leaf mold. If the decaying material is offensive 
in any way, a sprinkling of loam or road dust is all that is 
necessary. 
Madison Cooper. 
Gladiolus Europa. 
This variety has been much discussed from time to time, 
and by most growers it is acknowledged to be the purest 
white Gladiolus grown. It is not only a very pure white, 
but is of beautiful form and always a winner at the flower 
shows. Up to recent years Europa was supposed to be very 
much subject to disease and a weak grower, and the stock 
which was grown in Europe surely was bad enough in this 
respect. The editor’s first experience with Europa, was 
about the same as all other growers, but from year to year 
his stock of Europa has been improving until this year with 
cleaner and larger corms than ever before to plant, he is 
getting the most beautiful Europa that he has ever grown. 
One spike recently measured from the base of the first bud 
to the tip of the spike, over 19 inches, and many spikes in 
the row were fully four feet in height. 
It has been the aim of hybridizers to produce a white as 
pure and graceful as Europa and of much stronger growth, 
and many so-called whites have been introduced but none 
of them in our opinion rival Europa in purity of color and 
form of flower. 
Primulinus Hybrid Gladioli. 
Much time and thought has been put on the crossing of 
Primulinus species with many of our best standard and new 
varieties of Gladioli during the past few years. The Primu- 
linus Hybrids resulting are many of them beautiful and 
unique and as a diversion in the culture of Gladioli they 
will doubtless always hold an interesting place. 
But, because of their uniqueness and their unusual and 
graceful characteristics, hybridizers have, we believe, formed 
an erroneous opinion of their true value and some of the 
best originators in the world have, in our opinion, wasted 
a lot of valuable time in naming and propagating some 
Primulinus Hybrids which are of little or no value as im- 
proved varieties. 
This word of caution should not be taken in a too pes- 
simistic strain, as Primulinus Hybrid Gladioli will doubtless 
always have their place in floriculture, and we write as 
above wholly as a caution to those who are working along 
this line to put them on their guard against the naming of 
varieties which have little merit. But a very small fraction 
of the Primulinus Hybrids which have been named are 
likely to be accepted as standard varieties, and propagated 
commercially. 
The practice of allowing crowds at flower shows to van- 
dalize (yes, vandalize is the right word) the flowers on the 
last day of the show, is absolutely wrong. Such vandalism 
would not be practised by true flower lovers, and no useful 
effect is accomplished by such a wild scramble. We recom- 
mend that those in charge of flower shows absolutely pre- 
vent such occurrences by posting guards during the last 
hours of the show. 
As before stated, those who scramble for flowers in this 
way are not real flower lovers, but vandals who think they 
are getting something for nothing. Flowers left over from 
a flower show ought to be sent to hospitals or devoted to 
some other commendable purpose and visitors should not be 
subjected to the debasing spectacle of the flower scramble. 
Continued complaint is being made of the Gladiolus 
variety Halley being sold for Prince of Wales, and Prince of 
Wales stock being mixed with Halley. The varieties are 
enough similar so that the roguing of Halley out of Prince j 
of Wales is not very easy. Prince of Wales has become so ; 
popular that possibly some unscrupulous traders have de- 
liberately mixed Halley with Prince of Wales. It need not 
perhaps be stated, that anyone so unscrupulous ought to be 
avoided in a business way. Anyone who has bought Prince 
of Wales and had Halley delivered, or found their Prince of \ 
Wales badly mixed with Halley, is justified in protesting. 
Growers of Gladioli who are anxious to increase the 
number of varieties they are growing will find the purchase 
of collections economical. Some very favorable prices are 
made for meritorious collections and in some cases intro- 
ducers of new varieties will only sell certain things in col- 
lections and not singly. 
