90 
Ofye Slower (Brower 
June, 1920 
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WAYSIDE 
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NAMING NEW VARIETIES OF GLADIOLI. 
Another matter worth thinking about was 
brought to my attention a short time ago in 
correspondence with a commercial hybrid- 
izer and grower. This gentleman had just 
mentioned his reluctance to name a new 
Glad, unless it was superior to anything in 
commerce in some one particular at least, 
and that he had discarded thousands of seed- 
lings because they did not measure up to 
that standard, although many of them were 
actually superior to many subsequent intro- 
ductions. His words and ideas are so good 
that they are worth quoting at length. 
“There is a great temptation on the part of growers 
of seedlings, to which I fear even some of our leading 
growers have given away, to preserve and dignify 
with a name many fairly good seedlings, no better 
than many sorts already listed in catalogues clutter- 
ing up the lists with sorts that properly ought to be 
either discarded utterly or thrown into a mixed col- 
lection. 1 am sure that I have thrown away many 
thousands of very good seedlings, quite as good as 
many of the named sorts already in commerce, be- 
cause they did not come up to my ideal of what a new 
sort should be.” 
Compare these views with the well known 
methods in use. Surely the Gladiolus Society 
needs a popular vote on the varieties in com- 
merce, as to whether their existence shall 
be sanctioned by the Society, with perhaps 
20 affirmative votes necessary to qualify, and 
if less are cast, provisional standing to be 
granted, and to be designated by a different 
title. If this were done, one can see at a 
glance how difficult it would be for a dealer 
to sell inferior named sorts. For myself, I 
feel that I am about to the point of refusing 
to put money into sorts that have not proved 
themselves at the Society’s shows. Such 
things as Joe Coleman’s set of seedlings which 
swept off the prize for “One dozen varieties, 
one spike of each” needed no advertising. 
All he had to do was to announce that they 
were for sale at a fair price, and he was at 
once deluged with orders, and many have 
since regretted that they were not in time. 
But when one sees in the journals the names 
of unknown new sorts, at very high prices, 
he can well afford to await the issue at the 
next show. Two, three and more dollars 
per corm are prices which are fair only in 
the most extreme of excellence. A spike 
must be of supreme quality to be worthy 
of such a price. 
W. E. Saunders. 
THE TESTING AND TREATMENT 
OF VARIETIES OF GLADIOLI. 
It isn’t wise to decide that a given Gladiolus 
lacks merit if you have grown it but once. 
Three seasons ago I failed to grow Myrtle 
successfully. The following season the same 
stock produced flower spikes beautiful beyond 
all praise. Of course this outcome didn’t 
merely happen. It was the result of studied 
attention to its probable cultural require- 
ments. 
A Pansy specialist said he had foreordained 
the Pansies in his Pansy bed to measure at 
least two and a quarter inches. By which he 
meant to say that he had conformed to all 
the conditions essential to the production of 
such big Pansies. Nearly all Gladioli, like 
Pansies, can be made to do well by proper 
culture. Europa, for example, though much 
defamed, can be grown satisfactorily by any 
one who will give it the attention its splendor 
merits. It undertakes to produce a flower 
spike out of all proportion to its foliage. It 
must, therefore, receive cultural care to 
promote vigor of stem and leaf early in the 
season, and later, generous stimulation while 
the flower spikes are forming. The best 
ground bone-meal dug into the subsoil, a gen- 
erous layer of wellrotted fine manure as a 
RAMBLINGS 
mulch, as soon as the plants are well up, and 
the generous use of weak liquid manures as 
stimulants, are all very useful. 
While in Europa we have a Gladiolus re- 
quiring special culture and stimulation, in 
Schwaben we have a variety which needs re- 
pression. This can perhaps be done best by 
growing the smaller sized corms. Plants 
grown from § inch and medium sized stock 
produce more attractive flower spikes than 
those from the largest corms. The latter 
usually produce several plants from a single 
corm and these, unless thinned out, bear short 
spikes with few flowers. Schwaben, above 
most other varieties, is well adapted to the 
experiment of cutting corms into segments 
for increase in both corms and flower spikes. 
Henry Madtes. 
MY FIRST EXPERIENCE 
WITH BULBLETS. 
On April 23rd of last year in the early gar- 
den plot, I planted some Gladiolus bulbletsof 
good varieties. The cold, rainy weather har- 
dened the soil, but the weeds grew. I waited 
several weeks for the little blades of green. 
Since it was my first experience planting 
bulblets, I was interested. It was late in May 
before I could weed or cultivate the five short 
rows, and not much to be seen then, but I 
gave them some extra fertilizer, and in June 
when the weather was fine and the ground 
was warm they grew rapidly and furnished 
my first bloom of the season, July 17th a 
Primulinus Hybrid from Hundred’s “Grand 
Mixture.” Others soon bloomed and alto- 
gether there were over one hundred. When 
I dug the bulbs the second week in October, 
I was pleased to see such good sized bulbs 
from such small bulblets. 
Stella M. Antisdale. 
CATERPILLARS EAT GLADIOLI. 
Under the above caption, “W. G. N.” asks in 
March Flower Grower, what insect nibbled 
the tip of the Gladiolus spike, and the answer 
is caterpillars. I have had much more trouble 
from grasshoppers than caterpillars; some 
years they have been very destructive. The 
soft black beetle commonly known in this 
section as the Aster beetle, will eat whole 
spikes of flowers sometimes, when deprived 
of its favorite food. They appear suddenly 
in considerable numbers and will destroy 
many spikes between morning and night. 
They seem to work during the daytime and 
the best method I have discovered for getting 
rid of them is to knock them off the blossoms 
into a can containing a little kerosene. They 
are quick to take the alarm and many of them 
will drop to the ground or catch on the stalks 
lower down, in which case they should be 
carefully sought out and crushed. Their 
appetites are something to wonder at and 
their destructive powers very great. 
Harmon W. Marsh. (Indiana) 
AGE AND GLADIOLUS CORMS. 
Although but an amateur, being a farmer’s 
wife, yet forty-five years steadily growing 
Gladioli should give me some experience. I 
grew and loved this wonderful flower long 
before it was either popular or well known. 
Small insignificant scarlet and yellow were 
the first ones and I well remember my first 
pink ones and how wonderful we thought 
them. Some years ago every Gladiolus bulb 
I had, several hundred, were frozen solid in 
the ground so I was obliged to buy an entire 
new lot and these I am sure I have yet. I 
never save the tiny bulblets as I fear they 
would not grow unless peeled. A new bulb, 
sometimes one, sometimes up as high as five 
or six, form on top of the old one, and mine 
are just as fine, just as thrifty and vigorous 
today as twenty-seven years ago. It is cul- 
tivation that counts rather than the age of 
the bulbs. I only wish I could meet with some 
one who threw theirs away every year. A 
thorough careful ripening of the bulb is also 
a very necessary item. Gladioli do not 
want fussing over, but they do need intelligent 
care. A good, dry, frost-proof place to store 
them is another essential to their success. 
Mrs. E. B. Murray. 
A PLEA FOR MORE FLOWERS. 
Dahlias fill a gap in the garden when other 
blooming plants are scarce. Hardy Chrys 
anthemums follow the Dahlia and lengthen 
out the season’s bloom. My advice is to 
plant both and plenty of them, not only 
making your own home beautiful, but it 
gives you a God given pleasure to have a 
bunch to give, and to help possibly a poor 
unfortunate who is sick and weary of life, 
never possibly having had the pleasure of 
growing and cutting flowers. 
There is nothing on God’s earth so beauti- 
ful as flowers and nothing that makes home 
more attractive. Let us each and every 
one continue this godly work by growing 
them, reading the periodicals published on 
same, also talking about them whenever 
possible, so that every garden and every 
home, will be the home beautiful. 
Richard Vincent, Jr. 
MORE BIRD ARTICLES DESIRED- 
BROWN THRUSH. 
I am glad that you are to include for your 
readers an occasional item regarding birds, 
for I am sure that flower lovers in general 
are interested in everything that adds in- 
terest and beauty to nature. Probably Mr. 
Saunders (Canada) could tell us many 
things about birds that would be of great 
interest. 
At my country home (Rochester, Mich.) we 
have had a Brown Thrush that has been with 
us for three seasons. At least I assume it to 
be the same one, for he sings with unusual 
fervor and very late in the season, and dur- 
ing his renditions he never fails to include 
the song of the Whippoorwill and occasionally 
that of the Bob White and Meadow Lark. 
He seems to have been a close observer of 
the songs of other birds for we note an 
occasional familiar passage that we are not 
quite sure of. 
I wonder if other readers of The Flower 
Grower have had a similar experience? 
A. S. Parker. 
LET US HAVE " PEACE." 
Perfect Peace depends upon circumstances. 
The Glad of that name has the same char- 
acteristics. Several years ago I received from 
Cowee, one dozen Peace. When planted seven 
came up promptly and bloomed as Peace 
should ; the other five failed to show a leaf. 
The garden was plowed in the fall and again 
in the spring, when in May up came the 
missing five, misplaced by rough treatment, 
but they had lived through the winter. In 
1918 Peace bloomed so late the bag of bulbs 
in the fall was labeled “plant early” and early 
they were planted in 1919, some thirty fine 
bulbs, when lo, Peace was the second earliest 
to bloom and continued until fall, spike after 
spike. When dug in October (late) 18 of the 
largest weighed five pounds, three largest one 
pound, hereafter, Peace shall have possession 
of the ground early and “long live Peace.” 
Mrs. G. W. Bain. 
