158 
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WAYSIDE RAMBLINGS 
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DARWIN TULIPS “ COMING BLIND.” 
A correspondent inquires what is the mat- 
ter with Darwin Tulips that “come blind.” 
The correspondent should have specified 
what is meant by “come blind.” Is it merely 
failure to bloom ? Mere failure to bloom 
would probably be due to the bulbs having 
divided into young bulbs too small to bloom. 
A little bulb sticks up a single leaf with 
no blossom stem. Where bulbs remain sev- 
eral years, they get too numerous and 
crowded to attain size sufficient to bloom. 
That is one reason for frequent moving of 
the bulbs. If Tulips must remain for years 
without moving, the blossom should be al- 
lowed every year to stay on the plant until 
the seedpod has formed. There will then be 
but little division of the bulb, and it will not 
need moving so soon as when the blossoms 
are picked as soon as they open. 
Perhaps your correspondent, in picking 
the flowers, pulls up the whole stem out of 
the ground, or cuts it off at the top of the 
ground. If so, the bulbs become so badly 
starved they cannot form buds for the fol- 
lowing year. In cutting, two leaves should 
always be left on the plant to mature the 
bulb. 
Sometimes moles tunnel under the bulbs 
and cut off the feeding roots, so that the 
bulbs starve, or tear through the large bulb, 
so that it dies, and only little ones that 
escape are left to put up leaves. 
Tulips are sometimes planted in a soil too 
loose and porous. Such a soil should be 
thoroughly tamped before the bulbs are 
planted, and planting should be deeper than 
in a heavier soil. Otherwise the base of the 
bulb is left too open to the air, and the soil 
will be too loose for the little rootlets to 
push into it and take hold of it, or too dry, 
or will dry out after the bulbs are started, 
or will freeze dry in the winter. Under such 
circumstances the main bulb will die, and 
sometimes the part of it that would become 
a little side bulb will remain alive, and put 
up a single leaf. The soil for planting Tu- 
lips should be well-drained, fine in texture, 
free of trash, litter, or manure, well settled 
by a rain or two after being worked up, or 
else well compacted by rolling or tamping, 
and firmed over the bulbs after planting. 
So long as a Tulip bulb has its roots running 
down into firm moist soil, freezing will not 
hurt it. 
Strictly speaking, I think the term “ come 
blind,” should be used only when there is a 
flower-stalk, but no bud on it, or an aborted 
bud, or bud that has thick green leaves in- 
stead of colored petals. Imported bulbs 
sometimes put up a stalk with no bud. This 
is due to the bulbs getting overheated on 
shipboard by being placed too near the heat- 
ing pipes or some other source of heat. Only 
a small proportion of a shipload would be so 
affected, and it is much less likely to occur 
now than before the cause of the trouble 
was known. Where the buds come defective 
or green, I do not know the cause, but sus- 
pect it to be due to the bulbs being over- 
heated in the soil during summer. It is not 
a serious trouble nor is it a permanent char- 
acter of the bulb. Some that I tagged one 
year gave perfectly good blooms the year 
following. 
Sometimes a bud is diseased. As soon as 
it can be seen that a bud is abnormal, it 
should be picked off below the sickly part of 
the stem and burned. The disease that 
causes “ firing ” of the foliage is propagated 
by spores from diseased buds. 
There is a disease that kills the bulbs, 
which can be detected by the turning red or 
purple of the plant, and its death before 
blooming. The spores of this disease are on 
the bulb and on the underground part of the 
stem. Such diseased plants should not be 
pulled up, as that gives the spores a chance 
to scatter. 
B. C. Auten. 
STORING GLADIOLUS 
CORMS IN SUGAR BAGS. 
I have noticed some articles regarding 
Gladiolus bulbs in “ sugar bags.” May I 
give you my way? Having over one hun- 
dred named varieties and anxious to keep all 
separate, I label each bag at the bottom 
with a three inch copper wired label— name 
of variety plainly written. When bulbs are 
bought or dug, drop each in bag so named. 
When ready to set, have 15 inch labels for 
the bulbs in the ground, empty each bag 
and place tall label, then bunch the bags for 
each row, labeling row 1, 2, or 3, etc. Then 
when ready to dig in the fall, cut tops to 
three inches, drop bulb in labeled bag, the 
corms of each variety with the old bulb, tie 
up the tall stakes or labels, labeling them 
row 1, 2, or 3, etc., ready for spring. The 
bags of bulbs can be strung on large blanket 
safety pins, which will hold 12 to 15 bags, 
(after tying the tops of bags) and the bunch 
hung on nails driven in shed or store room 
or placed each day in the sunshine to cure. 
In a few weeks can be looked over, topped 
and cleaned— dirt shook out— and bulbs re- 
placed in bags for a winter’s rest. A post 
in cellar driven full of stout nails makes an 
ideal place to hang the bunches of bags, all 
sizes of bags can be used— five pound sugar 
bags, up to twenty-five pound bags — or can 
be made of cheese cloth or doubled netting. 
I have found this ideal where so many va- 
rieties are to be kept separate, and there 
is no danger of mixing bulbs, and by bunch- 
ing both labels (stakes) and bags when not 
used it is easy to get each lot by looking 
up number of row or bag, 1, 2, 3, etc. 
Perhaps I have not made this very plain 
but I have proved it out with one hundred 
and fifty named varieties. Where two and 
three different plantings are made of each 
kind it takes that many more bags and tall 
labels, as each bunching of bags or labels 
goes by rows, 1, 2, 3, etc. 
Mrs. G. W. Bain. 
“ TWELVE BEST ” IRISES. 
A number of people have asked me to 
recommend a dozen choice Bearded Irises 
with which to start a collection. I have sug- 
gested the following twelve varieties which 
may be of general interest, as each variety 
is distinct, has charm and may be purchased 
at reasonable cost. 
When you have become acquainted with 
these, you will be quite willing to discard 
the older, inferior varieties you may have 
growing in your garden: 
Pallida Dalmatica (syn. Princess Beatrice ,) 
Lohengrin, Queen Alexandra, Archeveque, 
Isoline, Prosper Laugier, Floorado, Monsig- 
nor, Rhein Nixe, Jeanne d’ Arc, Iris King 
Loreley. 
Wm. S. Johnson. 
BLACKHAWK GLADIOLUS. 
Mr. Black sold this variety as Gov. Hanly 
and I bought a few of him. When they 
bloomed I saw that they were not Gov. Hanly 
and wrote him about it. The next spring he 
had me send him a few Gov. Hanly, and then 
he suggested three names, and I chose Black- 
hawk. Mr. Black acted fair in the matter 
for he called attention to it in his next cata- 
logue. It is a Kunderd seedling. 
Willis E. Fryer. 
October, 1920 
FLORA, A NEW YELLOW 
GLADIOLUS-OTHER VARIETIES. 
I wonder who else has tried the new yel- 
low Glad, Flora. A lot of this variety, im- 
ported under special permit for propagation, 
was sent me by one of the large firms to 
grow on for trial, as they were not allowed 
to sell it this year. They said they consid- 
ered it THE best yellow — even better than 
Golden Measure. Not having had the temer- 
ity to invest in so high-priced and unpro- 
ductive a variety as Golden Measure, I can- 
not compare them but Flora is certainly the 
best yellow I have seen. The flower is of 
good substance, fine round open form and 
without a blotch— a faint shading in the 
throat. The stem is erect and strong and 
the flowers well arranged. If it produces 
well or fairly, I think it a great acquisition. 
At the State Fair at Des Moines I took first 
for 12 best yellow with it and it is flowering 
finely still. 
Titanic is grand this season and Prince of 
Wales has been a show, only, like Pink Perfec- 
tion, it sprawled around under the weight of 
its bloom. Titanic and Mrs. Watt never do 
that. I am still undecided whether Majestic 
is going to supplant to any degree Prince of 
Wales. It seems more erect. I am just get- 
ting my first view of Glory of Kennemerland, 
a pink as big as Princeps. Proserpine, rose, and 
Pride of Hillegom, dazzling, persistent scar- 
let, were greatly wondered at in Des Moines, 
but with this season’s excess of moisture 
they lopped over in the vases. Mary Fennell 
was shown in quantities for the first time 
here and attracted great attention as a most 
dainty sort. Among my Diener’s mixed I 
find again one which seems to be an im- 
provement on Mrs. Austin’s Bluvista I shall 
watch with interest to see whether it holds 
its own. Geo. S. Woodruff. 
HARVESTING DARWIN TULIPS. 
Your correspondent, in giving directions as 
to harvesting Darwin Tulips, says to let 
them cure several days in the sun. Don’t 
do it. The sun should not be allowed to 
strike them at all more than the few minutes 
necessary to dig them and get them under 
shelter. Even the short space of one-half 
hour in clear sunshine on an excessively hot 
day can be their utter ruin. 
B. C. Auten. 
Words of Appreciation. 
One of our California subscribers on 
receiving his first copy of The Flower 
Grower writes as follows : 
“ Received the first copy of The Flower 
Grower and I wish to say that I am very 
much pleased with the same. It carries 
with it that undefinable something which 
characterizes all that comes from the heart 
as well as the head— a product of the flower 
enthusiast. 
“The Flower Grower is a genuine article 
and for the sake of all flower lovers I wish 
it a much wider circulation.” 
Prices for 1921. 
Although labor costs have not de- 
creased it would seem that “the peak” 
of prices has been reached, if not al- 
ready passed ; and those who are in- 
terested in making prices on flower 
stocks of various kinds should remem- 
ber this and not advance prices except 
where clearly justified. We are pleased 
to note that flower growers are, in the 
main, entirely reasonable in this re- 
spect, and but few' things have been 
advanced for the coming season, where- 
as many things have been reduced in 
price with the general average holding 
about steady. 
