42 
April, 1918 
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Tb\)<i Slower (Brower 
1 PUBLISHED MONTHLY ON THE FIRST OF THE MONTH BY I 
[ MADISON COOPER, CALCIUM, N.Y. j 
FOR BOTH AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL FLOWER GROWERS 
I Subscription Price : OUR MOTTO: Canadian and Foreign = 
: $1.00 per year. Special favors to none, and a Subscription Price I 
| 3 years for $2.00. square deal to all. $1.25 per year. 1 
Growers are invited to contribute articles or notes over their own 
signatures, but the Editor reserves the right to reject anything which 
in his judgment is not conducive to the general welfare of the business. 
Copyright lots by Madison Cooper 
The contents of THE FLOWER GROWER, formerly "The Modern Gladiolus 
Grower" are covered by general copyright. Permission is given to editors to use not 
more than one-third of any article providing proper credit is given at the beginning or 
end of such quotation, as follows: "From THE FLOWER GROWER, Calcium, N. Y." 
Special permission necessary for reprinting illustrations, long extracts or articles entire- 
Entered as second-class matter March 31, 1914, at post office at 
Calcium, N.Y., under act of March 3, 1879. 
Vol. V April, 1918 No. 4 
“ He who sows the ground with care and diligence acquires a 
greater stock of religious merit than he could gain by the 
repetition of ten thousand prayers.”— Zoroaster. 
A Patriotic Glad Idea. 
As my " better half ” was returning from Chicago yester- 
day a little girl, who said she would be " three years old the 
day after the Fourth of July, if there is a Fourth of July this 
year,” came over beside her chair. Noticing the knitting bag 
lying on the suitcase, she asked: "Is that your bag?” 
Being told it was, she next inquired : " Do you knit for 
soldiers?” "Yes, dear,” was the reply. Then came the 
question: "Why aren’t you knitting now?” and the inno- 
cent words of the child, without intent to rebuke, seemed to 
carry the sense of a call to duty. 
She is " knitting now,” as she sits beside the window 
where hangs our service flag, with two stars in its field for 
our Boys who enlisted in Aviation Service, and looks up to 
inquire: "Why don’t you tell The Flower Grower how 
the Gladioli helped us do our bit last summer? The idea 
might help others.” And I feel that I have been neglecting 
my " knitting ” for I should have told you about it long ago. 
But it is not too late. 
It all began when I gave her an armful of Gladiolus 
blooms one afternoon as she was starting for the Country 
Club, where lady visitors from a neighboring city were 
being entertained at luncheon. After the flowers had served 
their original purpose of adorning the tables, admirers 
sought to buy them. Then came " the idea.” Why not 
let them be sold for the benefit of the Red Cross? And so 
it was done, and again the next week, and the next, and so 
on through the season. 
Before long came the Annual Vaudeville and Ball of that 
organization, at the Edgewater Beach Club House. Here 
the idea was further developed, for she made a number 
of corsage bouquets from the half-bloomed-out tips from 
the garden ; harmonious colors combined, exquisite as 
orchids, a bit of green added, stems wrapped in florists’ 
foil ; and I cut a quantity of choice spikes and set up an 
attractive display. All sold readily and brought more than 
market values as all receipts of the evening went to the 
Red Cross and the price was " left to your own generosity, 
Sir ! ” Even my spikes of Purple Glory brought more than 
their cost, from a visiting opera singer. 
Then came a Labor Day celebration, with a " Street 
Dance ” at night on the Lake Boulevard for the benefit of the 
" Yarn Fund ” and here the sale of corsage bouquets by the 
ladies again helped in the knitting. 
And then when the " Boys ” marched away to camp and 
the great demonstration in their honor was concluded by a 
dance in the pavilion at Silver Beach, down on old Lake 
Michigan’s shore, another large lot of bouquets found ready 
sale for the good of the cause. 
Nor did the idea stop when blooms were gone, for a 
number of boxes were filled with good bulbs and placed on 
sale, the proceeds going to the Red Cross. 
I produced the " Glads,” my wife produced the idea, and 
together they produced over a hundred dollars for the Cause 
of Humanity. 
Friends who grow Gladioli — the time of bulb sales is 
here, the time of flowers will soon come, the needs will be 
even greater than before — don’t forget your knitting ! " Get 
‘the idea’ ? ” There is no copyright on it ; we hope others 
will use it ; we hope it may be developed and expanded by 
others who will relate their accomplishments and show us 
how to do even more. C. R. Hinkle. 
Join The American Gladiolus Society. 
I am sure that every one who has become even the least 
bit interested in the Gladiolus is anxious to know more 
about it. I well recollect how earnestly I sought for cul- 
tural knowledge when I began growing Gladioli years ago, 
but I had to learn from experience, and sometimes it was 
expensive. I once lost an entire season’s crop of bulblets 
through ignorance. There were no Gladiolus societies at 
that time, but we have a national one now that is offering 
it’s services to you, even waiving the initiation fee ($1) if you 
join before June 1st. It is a wonderful opportunity to learn 
everything about the Gladiolus and its culture. The mem- 
bership fee is $2.00 per year and includes a year’s subscrip- 
tion to The Flower Grower. I am on the membership 
committee and want to help every one I can. Drop me a 
card and I will send you a printed slip by return mail that 
will explain all about it, and make it easier for you to join- 
Mrs. A. H. Austin, Ravenna, Ohio. 
One of our subscribers has written stating that some 
growers when filling orders put in a bulb or two of different 
varieties for trial. This subscriber says that it would be 
much more satisfactory to the purchaser if the seller wanted 
to send something gratis to put in extras of the same varie- 
ties ordered, preferably in small stock or planting stock. 
The sending out of a bulb or two of varieties for trial is 
somewhat of a nuisance to the recipient at times. Many 
growers who have a large number of varieties and few of a 
kind are not very anxious to add to the number of varieties 
by the choosing of someone else, and in such cases the send- 
ing of only a bulb or two is not much of a kindness. 
One of our esteemed subscribers, who is located near 
the base hospital at Camp Custer, Mich., states that he will 
take his surplus bloom this summer to the sick soldier boys. 
Surely this is most commendable. Flowers have an influ- 
ence for good and for refinement on people who really pay 
little or no attention to them and in the sick room they are 
especially valuable as they help to cheer the lonely hours. 
Flowers in war time are more valuable than at any other 
time and instead of neglecting flowers we should grow 
more of them and see that they reach people who will be 
most benefited by them. The example cited above is an 
ideal way to dispose of surplus bloom. 
