22 
Obe Slower (Brower 
Mrs. A. H. Austin. 
M RS. AUSTIN IS ALREADY well partnership has been formed with Joe 
know to our readers. Anyone Coleman, and the Austins have retired 
who can undertake a department to Ravenna, Ohio, where Mrs. Austin 
in a monthly publication and continue is growing seedlings and conducting 
it successfully and steadily without a test grounds. 
skip for four years as Mrs. Austin has It is as a hybridizer or originator of 
done, does not need comment from the varieties that Mrs. Austin is best 
Editor. Her work shows for itself. known. Her varieties which have at- 
The Gladiolus trade has no more en- tracted most attention and are best 
thusiastic and active worker than Mrs. known to the Gladiolus trade, are 
Austin. She started in the business as Evelyn Kirlland, Herada, Gretchen 
MRS. A. H. AUSTIN. 
The flowers in the picture are some of her own seedlings. 
an independent worker. Mr. Austin 
assisted her by humoring her "hobby,” 
as a new undertaking would naturally 
be called, by preparing the soil for the 
growing of Gladioli. Mrs. Austin hired 
neighboring women to assist her in 
planting, weeding and cleaning the 
conns. She conducted the business 
independently until it assumed large 
proportions, when Mr. Austin gradually 
gave up his farm work and became in- 
terested in the business. Mrs. Austin, 
however, conducted the business in her 
own name for some years after it had 
grown to large proportions. The A. 
H. Austin Co., Wayland, Ohio, became 
one of the largest growers of Gladiolus 
corms in the country. Recently a 
Zang, Bertrex, Cardisun and Wamba. 
Evelyn Kirlland is especially attractive 
and of enormous length of spike and 
Herada is very distinctive in coloring. 
The Austin originations are well and 
favorably known wherever the Gladi- 
olus is grown. 
Mrs. Austin is a charter member of 
the Gladiolus Society of Ohio, the 
American Gladiolus Society and the 
Ladies’ Society of American Florists. 
She is a member of the Nomenclature 
Committee of the American Gladiolus 
Society. 
Those interested in the modern fem- 
inist movement can prove by Mrs. 
Austin’s experience, that women are 
able to conduct business successfully. 
February, 1918 
Mrs. Austin’s writings for The Mod- 
ern Gladiolus Grower, now The 
Flower Grower, beginning with the 
very first issue, are looked forward to 
each month by a large number of in- 
terested readers. 
Grow Flowers. 
We who love gardens have reason to be 
thankful. Gardening is relaxation. The re- 
fining and soothing effects of digging in a 
garden are the more keenly to be appreci- 
ated in war times because of the comparison 
such work affords to the echoes of the can- 
non and the strife of war. Nature’s whole- 
some breath is like a benediction. 
We who make gardening our hobby are 
glad of the broadened appreciation of our 
hobby brought about by the Government 
urging the people to plant gardens. We are 
proud, too, because of the happiness and 
contentment our new found co-workers have 
discovered in growing things. Because our 
brothers are “ over there ” is no reason why 
we should expect the sun to stop shining, 
the beauties of Nature to cease, nor the 
songs of birds to be stilled. 
Flower gardening is just as necessary in 
these war times as vegetable gardening. 
Flowers are food for the soul, stablizers of 
the emotions. More than ever do we need 
these things now. 
God intended that flowers should give us 
cheer. Was there ever a time when cheer- 
fulness was more needed than in these days 
when so much is happening to unsettle our 
thoughts ? Grow flowers ! Preach the gos- 
pel of beauty to all about you ! 
Gardening for flowers, for beauty, for 
naturalness, will never be listed as a non- 
essential in the lives of the American people. 
It is as necessary a feature of wholesome 
lives as good fresh air and sunshine. — J. J. 
Lane in Florists’ Exchange. 
Two Gladiolus Freaks. 
A. E. Kunderd, Goshen, Ind., sends 
us in the same box two interesting 
Gladiolus freaks. One of these is a 
twin bulb. This is not simply two 
divisions from the old bulb, but real 
Siamese twins actually grown together 
where they join the old corm and on a 
space about | x 1 in. The diameter of 
the corm is about 2 inches. 
The other freak is even more in- 
teresting and we do not know how it 
occurred. Anyway, it consists of four 
Gladiolus corms with as many stalks. 
One of these stalks has grown right up 
through the old corm on which has 
formed the other three new corms. 
The only way we can account for this 
is that a small corm was planted di- 
rectly under a large one, but even then 
we do not see how it could be that a 
sprout grew right through the old 
corm. There is no doubt but what it 
did. 
Mr. Kunderd simply sends the freaks 
without comment so we have no sug- 
gestions from him as to their cause or 
reason for existence. 
It is presumed that Gladiolus enthusi- 
asts have their stock all cleaned and 
sorted ready for planting and that they 
know just exactly where each variety 
is going when Jack Frost finally loosens 
his grip on the soil. System in plant- 
ing will save errors and make the work 
more interesting. 
