40 
April, 1918 
Ofye Tlower (Brower 
MRS. AUSTIN’S TALKS 
[ W ritten expressly for 'The Flower Groiuer. ] 
Gladioli in the 
War Garden. 
“S' 
k O MANY WHO have 
been accustomed to 
growing flowers are 
now giving them up for 
more important things.” 
The speaker was a sweet- 
faced matron who tried to 
hide her heartache as she 
talked of the telegram of her 
son’s slight indisposition at camp , 
and of her Wednesdays at the Red Cross 
room, of her knitting at home, her con- 
servation of food and of various self- 
denials, all to help, and then, with a 
smile, of the hoped for furlough. 
But I saw what she did not know, 
that worry and hurry and anxiety were 
placing their stamp on her counte- 
nance. And I wondered if the keen 
eyes of the son, if he be granted the 
furlough, would notice the change, 
slight as it was, and if it would take the 
soldier heart out of him. 
She is not a flower or garden enthu- 
siast but enjoys flowers and usually has 
them on her table and in her garden, 
but now, like many others, in patriotic 
zeal is depriving herself of their sooth- 
ing influence in the belief that they are 
not a necessity. But her soldier having 
been accustomed to them, associates 
flowers and vines and gardening with 
the cheering brightness of the home 
picture. Doesn’t she need flowers for 
him, and for herself in the relaxation 
that work among them would bring? 
Guy Empey and his soldier com- 
panions made a wreath of grass to 
place on the grave of a comrade. How 
they must have wanted flowers ! 
Lieutenant Coningsby Dawson in his 
story, "The Glory of The Trenches,” 
in describing the welcome of the 
wounded soldiers on their return to 
" Blighty,” says : " Flower girls are 
here with their baskets full of flowers 
—just poor girls with a living to earn. 
They run after us as we pass, and 
strew us with Roses. Roses ! We 
stretch out our hands, pressing them 
to our lips. How long is it since we 
held Roses in our hands? How did 
these girls of the London streets know 
that above all things we longed for 
flowers? It was worth it, all the mud 
and stench and beastliness when it was 
to this that the road led back.” 
How plain it is that we need flowers, 
more flowers than ever before, and the 
wholesome work of growing them our- 
selves. Last year the necessity for 
food conservation caused multitudes of 
people who had never gardened before 
to grow vegetables. The satisfaction 
of producing garden products and the 
beneficial exercise made it doubly in- 
teresting. Gardening became conta- 
gious and this year added millions will 
become soldiers of the soil. Think of 
the beauty if there were only one 
flower grown in each garden, and with 
just a little more time, a little more 
thought, a little more work a row of 
flowers may be had the en- 
tire length of the garden. 
Some flowers will adapt 
themselves quicker to vari- 
ous soils and conditions than 
others. The Gladiolus is a 
leading one in that respect 
and will do well in any good 
soil prepared as for vege- 
tables. That beauty row 
must be straight. When 
soil is well worked and ready 
for planting, fasten a garden line to a 
stake and drive it into the ground at 
one end of the garden and place a cor- 
responding stake in the ground at the 
opposite end. Draw the line taut and 
to make sure of having it straight bet- 
ter place a third stake in middle and 
take a sight over it from the end. 
With an iron garden rake smooth out 
the soil under the line and with the 
corner of the hoe make a drill beside it 
the entire length. If the bulbs are 
large, say \\ in. in diameter and the 
ground sandy, the trench should be six 
inches in depth and two in width at the 
bottom, but with a heavier soil four 
inches will be deep enough. A well 
manured soil will not need enriching 
but for ordinary garden ground it 
would be better to add a little good 
fertilizer such as is used for potatoes. 
A couple of tablespoonfuls scattered in 
the width of the bottom and about 2 ft. 
long will be about right. Mix it with 
dirt and sprinkle about an inch of soft 
dirt over it before putting in the bulbs 
for they must not come in direct con- 
tact with the fertilizer. 
By making the drill wider more 
bulbs can be planted at a great economy 
of space thus W.Y. One of the rules 
in planting is to allow each bulb twice 
its diameter for growing room but they 
will do well with a little less. If planted 
early and ground is cold it is well to 
not cover more than level at first, al- 
lowing for warmth from the sun, but 
as weather warms they should be 
ridged. Cultural directions in this re- 
spect will be given next month. 
Perhaps you grew a few Gladioli last 
year and have some bulblets. They 
are the small growth at the base of the 
bulbs. And now I hear some beginner 
say : "Are those little things worth 
anything? I didn’t save mine.” Well, 
large blooming size bulbs may be pur- 
chased so reasonably now that it hardly 
pays to save the bulblets unless you 
are planning to go into the business 
commercially. But if you did save 
them and are interested in their growth, 
you should plant them as early as pos- 
sible while the soil is full of moisture 
for the covering or shell is rather 
tough especially if it has been allowed 
to become dry through the winter, and 
they will be slow in coming into growth. 
These may be planted in a row by 
themselves but if space is limited they 
can be put in odds and ends of places. 
There is nearly always a little space 
left unplanted at the ends of the vege- 
table rows and a handful of bulblets 
can easily be grown there. Drop them 
in about three or four inches deep if 
soil is sandy and about one-half as deep 
if clay. Plant them very thickly. 
There are many places where a few 
bulbs may be tucked in the garden. 
Plant a row beside the early beets, 
such as Burpee’s Extra Early which are 
ready for table use in six to eight 
weeks time and when pulled the Gladi- 
oli will be growing nicely in the row. 
As radishes, head lettuce and any- 
thing that is used early are taken out 
the vacant space may have a bulb or 
two dropped in. Many florists keep a 
supply of bulbs to fill spaces among 
Carnations or other plants. Bulbs to 
be planted late in the garden must be 
kept in a cool, airy place where they 
will not sprout, and planted not later 
than the middle or latter part of 
June. Such bulbs should be one and 
one-half inches or over in diameter as 
large bulbs come into bloom earlier 
than small ones. Small bulbs planted 
earlier will bloom nicely before fall 
frosts. 
Mrs. A. H. Austin. 
The Editor’s Three P’s. 
We unfortunates who live in cities 
where the raising of pigs is taboo, can 
only regret our inability to follow the 
advice and example of the editor, and 
raise a pig for our country’s sake and 
the great cause for which we are at 
war. We can, however, do our bit by 
conserving the pig that the other fel- 
low raises, and on all occasions voice 
the patriotism. 
And then, let’s not neglect the posies, 
even if we have to set the alarm 
clock an hour earlier. Though we feel 
strongly that it is our patriotic duty to 
see that our fields and gardens give 
maximum returns in food production 
this year, there should and can be 
found time and opportunity for the ad- 
ditional planting of some fruits and 
flowers — especially perennials. Double, 
if possible, the vegetable output of last 
year’s garden, but let sanity prevail, 
and try to obtain room elsewhere be- 
fore destroying valuable perennials 
that may seem to be taking up needed 
space. 
In one of his recent articles, the tal- 
ented writer, Mr. J. Horace McFarland, 
while urging a more liberal planting 
of Roses for this year throughout the 
country, says : 
“ My desire for this planting is greater 
because of the war conditions that have 
caused every mother’s heart in America to 
throb and some to know bitter grief. There 
is a solace, a restoration of balance, a grief 
antidote, to be found in the sight of a beau- 
tiful Rose, which I would have made avail- 
able all over the land. We call upon flowers 
to aid in expressing our sympathy for the 
dead ; why not use them more freely for 
comforting the living who have heavy bur- 
dens to bear ? Last spring a high official in 
the Federal Government, in the first hys- 
terics of the potato shortage, proposed that 
the great gardens of Iris, Peonies and Roses 
in the Arlington farm of the Agricultural 
Department at Washington should be plowed 
up and potatoes planted instead ! Saner 
counsels prevailed ; but I am expecting to 
send a peck of potatoes as a funeral tribute 
should that man soon pass away.” H. G. R. 
