186 
C?l)£ Slower (Brower 
November, 1920 
Queries and Answers Department. 
| “ All questions asked in good faith and which are of general interest will have careful attention. I 
= The full name and address of the writer must be given, but not for publication.” 
Time to Dig Gladiolus Corms. 
To the Editor:— 
How soon after blooming can Glads be dug? I 
have considerable space in Glads which I desire to 
use as soon as 1 can get them out of the way. for 
hardy plants. Must I wait until after frost or can 
they be dug as soon as they have bloomed ? 
Harry H. Turner. 
Answer — No specific time can be given at 
which to dig Gladiolus corms, but it may be 
generally stated that they may be dug when 
the foliage begins to ripen or brown and they 
may also be dug 30 to 60 days after bloom- 
ing. It is not necessary to wait until after 
the frost and sometimes it is detrimental to 
wait so long. Leaving Gladiolus corms in 
the ground late in the fall results in greater 
gain in number and size of bulblets, but in 
case of wet weather it is possible that the 
corms may be damaged to an extent which 
will induce rot. October is, without doubt, 
the best average month for digging, but 
where one has considerable quantity it is 
quite proper to start digging bulblet grown 
stock the first of September or even earlier. 
Bulblet grown stock should not be left until 
the foliage ripens as it is very difficult to dig 
then. It is convenient to use the foliage in 
lifting. 
It is not best to dig Gladiolus corms as 
soon as they have bloomed. At that time 
the new corm is small and undeveloped and 
they should be left at least 30 days, generally 
speaking before digging, and 60 is prefer- 
able in some cases. Although an immature 
corm may keep well in storage and grow 
another season it will not produce as useful 
a flower spike as it would if fully developed 
and besides few bulblets will be secured if 
dug directly after blooming. 
Do Gladioli Revert— 
Excessive Tinting of Gladioli. 
To the Editor :— 
Do Gladioli revert or change color from one year to 
another ? I have a variety which I have raised from 
seed and of which I now have 20 bulbs. Last year it 
was all I could expect. It is (or was) a very pretty 
salmon rose-pink with a lavender picoteed edge. A 
fine plant, of sturdy growth, having a spike that car- 
ried 20 buds, with five to seven well placed flowers 
wide open at a time. 
This year most of the bulbs had flowers with the 
lavender or blue, carried well into the petals, produc- 
ing a result that was not near as pleasing as the oi jgi- 
nal. The growth was healthy and no signs of disease 
apparent. 1 cannot account for this by any weather or 
soil condition as this did not occur with other Gladioli 
growing alongside. 
The next concerns the increasing of propagation. 
This spring I accidentally broke off the tops of two 
Gladioli after they had started to sprout, and before 
they showed above the ground. 
The bulbs were planted about six inches deep. 
After the tops or shoots were broken off the bulbs 
were left undisturbed and one afterwards sent up 3 
new shoots and the other (a Schwaben) sent up 11 
new shoots which means 14 new bulbs from the origi- 
nal two. 
Is this in keeping with the incident that is told of 
mice eating out the ends of Hyacinth bulbs for the 
Dutch bulb growers and thereby was learned the 
way of increasing the propagation of these bulbs? 
Has this method ever been tried with Gladioli ? 
C. E. Oldacre. 
Answer— This year there has been an un- 
usually large number of complaints about 
excessive tinting. Many varieties that are 
ordinarily considered white have tinted to 
such an extent that they have hurt their 
reputation as white varieties. This has 
been true in our own garden, and but few 
of the so-called white varieties have been 
really white this year. Varieties which are 
not white, but are light in color also show 
much more color or deeper tint than usual. 
We attribute this to weather conditions, but 
we are not able to tell why certain weather 
conditions should give greater tinting than 
others. We have found that with a consid- 
erable quantity of available potash in the 
soil that varieties tint more, and we have 
also noticed that where weather conditions 
were inclined to be tropical, resulting in a 
forcing of unusually rapid growth, that the 
Gladiolus will tint more. 
Your observation from the accidental 
breaking off of sprouts of Gladioli would 
lead to the deduction that the stopping of 
growth in the strong eye or eyes in a Gladi- 
olus corm might result in stimulating the 
other eyes to grow and it might be that 
acting on your discovery would result in 
securing much more rapid propagation of 
Gladiolus varieties which make few bulblets 
and do not divide naturally. 
Would recommend that you plant those 
eleven divisions of Schwaben separately and 
see what the result is in 1921. It will be 
interesting to know whether they will bloom 
and do as well as corms resulting from 
growth which did not divide. 
Referring to the question of reversion : 
We do not understand that Gladioli actually 
revert to former type, but we are not aware 
that this question has been answered with 
absolute certainty and additional informa- 
tion is surely desirable along this line. 
So far as we know the breaking off of 
sprouts from Gladiolus corms to increase 
propagation has never been resorted to com- 
mercially and it may be that you have dis- 
covered something that will be helpful in 
connection with varieties which are slow to 
increase. 
Madison Cooper. 
Growing Gladioli From Seed. 
To the Editor :— 
I am an amateur in the cultivation of Gladioli and 
have been cross pollenizing some to see what result 
I can get. 1 would be pleased to know if I can plant 
the seeds obtained from this cross when they are well 
dried out. grow them in my conservatory to mature 
bulblets by spring, and then plant them in the open 
field ; thereby gaining a year’s growth ; or will I have 
to wait until spring to plant the seeds, harvest the bulb- 
lets in the fall and so on for two or three years before 
I can see them bloom ? 
C. C. T. 
A nswer— Seeds of the Gladiolus may be 
planted any time after they are well dried 
and the method you suggest of growing in 
greenhouse during the winter so as to save 
a year’s time has been utilized by some 
growers. The growth resulting from Gladi- 
olus seed is really a bulb or corm and not a 
bulblet or cormel, strictly speaking. Cor- 
mels or bulblets are off-sets from the large or 
parent corm and the growth resulting from 
a Gladiolus seed is a small corm and not a 
cormel. Therefore, these little corms should 
be treated as such and ripened off and dried 
and given a reasonable rest before planting. 
There may be some difficulty in getting 
healthy growth from seed planted, and grown 
when the period of sunshine is short as it is 
during our northern winters, but if good 
growth can be had it will surely save a year’s 
time by following out the plan you suggest. 
Origin of Varieties. 
In answer to inquiry in the August issue 
of The Flower Grower : 
Alice Carey— Credited to E. Y. Teas by J. 
K. Alexander and Willis E. Fryer. 
Black Hawk— Named by G. D. Black who 
obtained it intermixed with Kunderd’s Cardi- 
nal King. 
Fire King— Introduced by John Lewis 
Childs, Flowerfield, L. I. 
Mrs. James Lancashire — Named by B. 
Hammond Tracy, but said to be the same as 
Fany, originated by E. E. Stewart. 
White Cluster— Originated and named by 
Mrs. A. H. Austin. 
Dominion— Originated by H. H. Groff, 
Simcoe, Ont., doubtless synonymous with 
Red Emperor named in Holland, but of which 
stock was probably obtained in America. 
Chas. E. F. Gersdorff. 
We have in hand material for valu- 
able articles, which has been sent us by 
our good friends and which only awaits 
sufficient time and attention on our 
part to put into shape for publication. 
We make this statement as a public 
apology to those to whom we are in- 
debted for the valuable material that 
they have furnished us. We are organ- 
izing our other lines of work in such 
shape that we can give closer attention 
to The Flower Grower and its re- 
quirements. The task of selecting and 
arranging material of real merit which 
comes to us is no small job and the 
time required is not always available 
just when it should be. 
Gladioli in the Floral Department of the Great New York State Fair. 
This year (1920) the entries in both the commercial and non-commercial classes were much larger than 
ever before and since the Editor began showing about eight years ago the entries have doubled and quad- 
rupled. Gladioli are certainly gaining rapidly in favor every year. 
At present the floral department at the State Fair is in the immense Manufactures and Liberal Arts 
Building, adjoining the fruit department, but it is hoped that a new and modern horticultural building to house 
the floral and fruit exhibits will be available within the next year or two. 
A generous prize list is offered, which is revised and added to and made more attractive from year to 
year, both in the professional and amateur classes. 
