April 6, 1882. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
273 
6tU 
Tn 
Royal Caledonian Society’s Spring Show, Edinburgh. 2nd day. 
7th 
F 
Good Friday. 
8th 
S 
Roval Botanic Society, 3.45 p.M. 
9th 
SUN 
Easter Sunday. 
10th 
M 
Bank Holiday. 
11th 
TU 
Royal Horticultural Society, Fruit and Floral Committee* at 
12 th 
W 
[11 A M.; Fromenade Show. 
THE GLADIOLUS. 
contribution of “D Deal,” on page 178 
has doubtless been carefully perused by all 
your readers who are interested in the Gla¬ 
diolus. Others have of late written on the 
same subject, and the conclusion I consider 
amounts to this—that it is the most captivat¬ 
ing, the most capricious, and the most costly of 
&j\ all our flowers. It does not require the “ doyen 
rW grower's " twenty-five years of experience, nor his stock 
of four hundred plants, to enable one who has made it 
a speciality to arrive at well-grounded opinions as to the bare 
justice of these designations. Not even the Lose has greater 
fascinations for its most ardent admirers, and I often find the 
culture of the two combined. But how often does a lavish 
expenditure of time, care, and cash result in the fact that we 
have no Gladioli in the garden, although we have them in 
the heart? I hold it to be beyond question regarding this 
grand flower that the caprice and the costliness are pre¬ 
eminently its own. 
The advice of a friend given about six years ago was be¬ 
gotten of sad personal experience. He cautioned me upon 
mounting a hobby that he shrewdly suspected would be pretty 
well ridden if mounted at all. In his homely way he warned 
me to “ look oot for a sourin’." I have confessed to him more 
than once since then how largely the bitter has obtained in 
proportion to the sweet. I have a neighbour, to whom I have 
before referred in the Journal, who has been an enthusiastic 
cultivator of the Gladiolus for a dozen years. I have not as 
yet met with any collection more select than our own, although 
both together would not greatly exceed in extent that of “ D., 
Deal’s.” We have both had gratifying testimony that we can 
grow Gladioli; indeed, I hold my friend to be the best grower 
of them I know. Yet we have more than once wished we 
could give them up altogether. Instead of that, additions of 
new varieties and old favourites indicate that the allurements 
of the syren are too strong for us. I now advise all my friends 
that Gladiolus-growing is an expensive luxury. 
I have planted early in the season and later ; started the 
corms in pots and in the open ; used farmyard and artificial 
manures ; given and withheld the same in liquid form ; 
mulched and abstained from mulching, and all with much the 
same results. A soil which seems to suit every other plant 
that I have tried and prepared according to their recognised 
requirements, sound coims, plants seemingly robustly healthy, 
and all the other conditions that in other cases almost insure 
success, are in that of the Gladiolus too often quite unreliable, 
and the most untiring attention is futile. The fact seems to be 
that we are fighting against climatic influences which no care 
can counteract. If this be unpleasant, it is to no one more so 
than to myself, and, as “D., Deal’’ always maintains, truth 
is the desideratum, be it gratifying or otherwise. 
The question of the evil being disease or exhaustion can be 
left open. Only the strength of the plants that died with me 
last year, some of them from as fine-looking corms as I ever 
planted, and which had never bloomed at all, and others that 
produced as grand spikes as I ever had, is the strangest symptom 
of exhaustion we could imagine. I would also observe that if 
the roots require ripening in greenhouses as has been suggested, 
then the Gladiolus must remain the flower of a comparatively 
select few, and must remain unclassed as a popular flower, as 
this alone would preclude its being generally cultivated. Is it 
becoming more so ? The following queries suggest themselves. 
Is the number of special catalogues of Gladioli increasing or 
diminishing ? Where these form but a section in a general 
catalogue is the list extending ? Where elimination is taking 
place is it only of inferior varieties ? Is the inability of dealers 
to supply really good sorts comprised in such lists, when ap¬ 
plied for early, merely proof of the growing demand for these ? 
My per-centage of losses last season quite equalled—my 
friend’s was perhaps somewhat less than—that of “ D., Deal's,” 
and these, as in his case, embraced the English and the French 
varieties, with some of a Scotch raiser’s in addition. All three, 
and at all stages, fully sustained their treacherous character. 
The last I do not much regret; the} 7 were unknown to fame, 
and never would have attained it. They escaped being turned 
out by taking themselves off, and the parting caused no pang. 
I saw last autumn, in a district that ought to be favourable to 
the Gladiolus, if such is to be had in Scotland, the few very 
sorry relics of what had been a very considerable assortment, 
and which had included seedlings of the owner’s that had been 
deemed worthy of being named and placed in commerce. Of 
the whole lota few spindling representatives remained. I also 
know of and have seen exhibited Scotch-raised seedlings which 
would have done honour to any collection, and I know that 
many of these are extinct. So much for the constitution of 
home-raised sorts. Of the English varieties I lost many, and 
most of them high-class. These corms were from the stock 
of a Scotch grower, and that they should fare thus after an 
attempt to acclimatise them to the north does not offer much 
encouragement. I must add, however, that every one I ob¬ 
tained last spring direct from Langport remained sound, and 
of some I have an increase. Only one or two had the chance 
to bloom, disclosing glimpses of charms enough to whet a curi¬ 
osity that has yet to be gratified. It is sincerely to be hoped 
that such grand kinds as Cymbeline, the Duchess of Edin¬ 
burgh, Jessica, James Ivelway, Queen Mary, and many others 
of Mr. Kelway’s raising, will have a better opportunity this 
season. 
The French sorts fared at least as badly. Of Ondine, for 
example, I had five, of Orpheus four, and the same number of 
Phoenix, and better plants I have not seen, if I ever saw them 
equalled. Of these thirteen there are three insignificant corms 
remaining. Le Phare, which had been increasing astonish¬ 
ingly well for a few years, has almost disappeared at one fell 
swoop. Of that beautiful variety the Marquis of Lothian, of 
which I had one corm three years ago, I last spring planted 
four, and to all appearance was secure of a gratifying addition. 
But, alas ! I scarcely expect the sole remaining one to grow. 
No. 98.—Vol. IT., Third Series. 
NO. 1749.-You LXVII., OLD Series. . 
