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| FOR BOTH AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL } 
| GROWERS OF THE GLADIOLUS, DAHLIA, IRIS, ETC. [ 
= Entered as second-class matter March 31, 1914, at post office at 
Calcium, N.Y., under act of March 3. 1879. 
1 PUBLISHED MONTHLY ON THE FIRST OF THE § 
j MONTH BY MADISON COOPER, CALCIUM, N. Y. | 
Subscription price: Three years, $2.00; One year, $1.00. 
Potted Plants as Wartime Christmas Gifts. 
[Written expressly for The Flower Grower . ] 
By Bertha Berbert-Hammond 
A GIFTLESS CHRISTMAS ! 
that, indeed, would be 
contrary to tradition and 
really seem like no Christ- 
mas at all ! As Charles Dickens 
so aptly expresses it : “I have 
always thought of Christmas as 
a good time, a kind, forgiving, 
charitable time, the only time 
I know of in the calendar of the 
year when men and women 
seem by one consent to open 
their shut-up hearts freely. I 
believe it hgs done me good 
and I say ‘ God bless it.’ ” 
Yet, with the ever increasing 
cost of the necessities of life and 
the constant and unexpected 
demands upon the purse, many 
persons who would like to open 
up their hearts freely, are con- 
fronted with the problem of 
providing a suitable expression 
of the Christmas spirit, with the 
small margin available this year, 
for the purchase of appropriate 
tokens of the good-will which 
they feel. But after all, it is the 
kind thought of the giver and 
not the intrinsic value of the 
gift that counts. “Kind thoughts 
make Christmas,” and so with 
a little forethought, those who 
love to grow and care for plants 
have it at their command, 
though the purchasing power 
of the dollar has shrunk to less 
than half its value, to make one 
dollar do the work of two, by 
planning to grow and use as 
Christmas gifts, potted plants. 
And what could be more sym- 
bolical of the Christmas idea of 
life, hope and good cheer, than 
a living, blooming plant ? What 
gift could be more charming or 
appropriate ? 
Who giveth flowers to feed the soul with joy 
As they unfold, doth richest gift employ. 
— [John Calvin Rose . ] 
In order to feel reasonably 
GLADIOLUS— A VALON. 
Introduced by A. E. Kunderd in 1916. It is of the Kunderdi 
type and has a strong, large plant growth with flowers of very 
large size and beautifully ruffled. 
The color is a snowy white with a cloud of softest blush 
over-spread, and the throat is as beautifully marked as Mrs. 
Frank Pendleton. . Mr. Kunderd describes it as having the gen- 
eral effect of a very choice Azalea or Rhododendron, and as one 
of the most beautiful of the show Gladioli. 
certain that the gift plant will 
thrive after it has been pre- 
sented and probably keep over 
for several seasons, it is neces- 
sary to select for the purpose, a 
plant that is of easy culture and 
that is likely to withstand the 
many adverse conditions of 
room culture. Most of the 
potted plants offered for sale at 
Christmas, and which are forced 
especially for the holiday trade, 
are very exacting in their cul- 
tural requirements, and are 
totally unfitted to flourish in the 
close, hot, dry atmosphere of 
the average living room. That 
is why, when removed from 
the cool, moist, even greenhouse 
atmosphere, many a lovely and 
expensive gift plant soon per- 
ishes. 
The Christmas coloring of the 
Poinsettia is exquisite. The 
brilliant red of the bracts that 
surround the clusters of florets, 
in combination with the hand- 
some foliage, make this plant 
an unusually effective and 
popular Christmas gift. The 
plants can be grown from seeds 
or from “heeled” cuttings, but 
they require ever watchful care 
to raise successfully. They 
must be watered and cared for 
regularly and are very sensitive 
to cold ; a sudden change of 
temperature alone, often result- 
ing in the drooping of the beau- 
tiful foliage that is half the 
charm. Unless one is the fortu- 
nate possessor of a well regu- 
lated greenhouse, the Poinsettia, 
and that equally popular but 
delicate Christmas plant, the 
beautiful “ Gloire de Lorraine 
Begonia,” are rather too difficult 
for the amateur to grow with 
favorable results. There are, 
however, numerous other va- 
rieties of handsome Begonias, 
( Concluded on page 126 . ) 
