September, 1918 
ZBbc Slower (Brower 
97 
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wayside ramblings 
GLADIOLI IN A DRY SEASON. 
Last year we had practically no rain 
here from the 14th of June until Sept. 
16th although there was plenty within 
ten miles of us on all sides. I planted 
my cheap varieties of Gladioli such as 
Halley, Baron Joseph Huloi, Mrs. Francis 
King, etc., on my high ground next to 
my potatoes. They were for the most 
part old corms 1| in. to 2 in. in diam- 
eter. The ground dried out to a depth 
of ten inches. Halley bloomed but the 
rest did not. They all stopped grow- 
ing about August 1st. My potatoes 
were a total loss. When digging I left 
this bunch of Gladioli until the last and 
they were not dug until after Novem- 
ber 1st. I thought they would not be 
worth much. Imagine my surprise 
when 1 found nice round corms one 
inch in diameter just like young stock. 
There were very few bulblets but what 
there were were large. This year these 
bulbs are making strong growth with 
healthy dark green foliage and as good 
as I ever had from young stock. 
D. E. Nelson. 
TIME FROM PLANTING TO BLOOMING 
OF GLADIOLI. 
It is interesting to study the different 
tables that have been given in The 
Flower Grower showing the num- 
ber of days from planting to the bloom- 
ing of the different varieties of Gladioli. 
But the differences and discrepancies 
in the reports are somewhat discon- 
certing. Conditions are not alike in 
all the reports. Other things being 
equal, a corm planted in June will 
bloom in a less number of days than 
one planted in April. A number two 
corm will bloom later than a number 
one, and a half inch corm, if it blooms 
at all, will bloom many days later than 
either. Soil may make a difference. 
So may weather, and perhaps other 
things. 
Even if we could have all things 
alike in these respects, there is another 
item in which all are equally at fault. 
Is there not something radically wrong 
in taking the first bloom of any one 
variety as a representative of its kind ? 
Would not the last individual to bloom 
be just as fair a representative? Would 
not a middle point between the two be 
fairer? That would be the average 
time of the whole lot. If the number 
of days that first bloom opens before 
the average time were a fixed quantity, 
then the present custom might be all 
right ; but is it a fixed quantity ? Isn’t 
that first bloom a sort of freak with 
nothing regular as to its time? Take 
ten plants, say of America. Say the 
first bloom opens x days before the 
average. Now take a lot of a thousand 
Americas. Will the first freak bloomer 
be x days before the average? More 
likely it will be twice that. And the 
larger the lot the longer before the 
average is the first bloom likely to be. 
Yet the average of the small lot is likely 
to be the same as that of the large lot. 
With that sort of thing it is likely to 
happen that the man with a large lot 
of any kind will report it earlier than 
the man with the small lot, although it 
may happen the other way. Nothing 
definite about it. 
It is generally understood that Pink 
Beauty is the earliest variety, with 
Halley a close second. But if a man 
has a small number of Pink Beauty and 
a big lot of Halley, very likely he will 
report Halley the earlier. 
An old saying is: “Any fool can 
find fault ; but the remedy, that’s the 
thing.” I’m not sure I know the 
remedy, but until some one offers 
something better I might offer a sug- 
gestion. Simply take the number of 
days from the time of planting until 
half the plants open their first bloom. 
To do this with a big lot would be 
something of a job. Well, then, count 
off a hundred, or some smaller num- 
ber, and it will not be so very hard to 
tell when half of them have shown 
bloom. 
The plan at present in vogue has the 
one advantage that it’s easier, and if 
you prefer to use it I’ll be magnan- 
imous enough to grant you the privi- 
lege. 
C. C. Miller. 
BALTIMORE AND SALMON QL’EEN. 
Salmon Queen was selected from 
Groff’s Hybrids and named Salmon 
Queen by Geo. S. Woodruff. The same 
variety was named Ballimoreby Arthur 
Cowee several years later. 
G. D. Black. 
Dutch Tulips. 
It would doubtless surprise, and perhaps 
disappoint, many a lover of the Dutch Tulip, 
or “oignon & fleur,” to learn that it was in 
a sense “made in Germany.” It is on reli- 
able record that the one variety of Tulip 
from which most of the celebrated varieties 
were obtained is the Tulipa Gesneriana, 
which Conrad Gesner, a German, brought in 
1559 from Constantinople to Augsburg, 
whence it found its way to Holland. A 
ludicrous claim of Pan-Germanism, there- 
fore, may yet be heard in which Holland is 
declared to be unmistakably Germany’s by 
right of the bulb trade, unless Turkey should 
make a prior claim, or Persia, should sue 
the Dutch for using a Persian word with 
which to name the national flower. For 
“Tulip" is none other than the Persian 
"Toliban,” meaning a turban. 
The Tulip is cultivated in Holland more 
than any other flower not merely because of 
the wealth that lies in the industry, or the 
appropriateness of Dutch soil for producing 
the best flowers, but also because of the 
Dutch people’s intense love of color. There 
were days, centuries ago, when the Tulip 
was the subject of frantic speculation, com- 
parable only to the South Sea Bubble. A 
single bulb of the Tulip L’Amiral Liefken- 
shoch has sold for 4500 florins, and one a 
Viceroy for 4200 florins, while the Semper 
Augustus has brought as much as 13,000 
florins. The speculation spread to England, 
where £100 was once paid for a single bulb 
of Fanny Kemble, whilst a poet wrote of the 
fashionable flower in those ingenuous coup 
lets : 
Foi brilliant tints to charm the eye. 
What plant can with the Tulip vie ? 
Yet no delicious scent it yields 
To cheer the garden or the fields ; 
Vainly in gaudy colors drest, 
Tis rather gazed on than caressed. 
The inflated prices, however, did not last. 
The Dutch Government stepped in and 
brought Mynheer back to his senses. The 
speculation was followed by the inevitable 
crash, and now the Dutch grower cultivates 
the flower content to make a reasonable 
profit without any of the visionary’s hopes 
of producing the unique, the priceless Black 
Tulip, that “Philosopher's stone” in Tulip 
dom, the attainment of which, as every 
reader of Alexandre Dumas knows, was the 
subject of the feud between Cornelius Van 
Baerle and Boxtel in the stirring days of the 
Brothers de Witt. 
The known cultivated varieties of the 
Dutch bulb number nearly 2000. Haarlem, 
or the district of Hillegom Haarlem, the 
bulb nursery-garden of the world, is a feast 
of color at blooming time of the year. 
Acres upon acres are covered with Tulips 
in full bloom, while the quays are sure to be 
lined with barges converted for the nonce 
into floating flower-shops. To the onlooker, 
the coloring is bewildering, but the growers 
are able instantly to identify the flowers by 
a simple and well-understood method of 
classification. There are the “ seifs,” or 
flowers of one solid color, and the “Bizarres,” 
“Roses” and "Bybloemen,” which for the 
connoisseur signify definite colorings, shad- 
ings, and markings. Then there are the 
plants known as offsets and seedling Tulips. 
The offsets grow to a flowering size in three 
or four years; the seedling Tulips after four 
or five years. But there is this remarkable 
feature about the latter, that whatever may 
have been the colorings and markings of the 
flowers from which the seeds were taken, 
the first flowers are of one dull, plain color. 
They continue in this uncertain condition 
for several years. Then the time comes 
when they break into brilliant colors, and 
display those markings which are classified 
as “flamed," or “feathered.” But nobody is 
certain as to when the exciting period of 
“breaking” will occur, though all kinds of 
ingenious devices are resorted to in order to 
hasten this stage. Once it is reached, there 
is always a prospect of unexpected markings 
appearing. A moment of tense expectancy 
has arrived for the modern grower. Let the 
markings but reveal that a hitherto un- 
known variety of Tulip has been produced, 
and his cup of happiness is filled to the 
brim.— Christian Science Monitor. 
Gladiolus— Prince of Wales. 
Here is what one of our subscribers 
says about the new variety, Prince of 
W ales : 
“ I cannot begin to express to you our ap- 
preciation of the glorious spikes of Prince of 
Wales we have been cutting for the past two 
weeks. It has Halley backed off the map as 
an early variety in that shade. Each spike 
is a big bouquet in itself and the percentage 
of crooked stems is just right.” 
Those who are especially struck with 
the variety Halley should try a few 
Prince of Wales in comparison. It is 
by many considered superior to Halley 
in every way. 
Reports from nearly all growers in 
various parts of the country indicate 
that the cut flower season has been a 
most unsatisfactory one, the extreme 
heat at times forcing the bloom and 
resulting in a very inferior cut. 
