16 
THE FOSS HEATON GLAD GARDENS, CRESTON, IOWA 
WHAT THE FLORIST WANTS 
The florist is an artist. Flowers are his raw material. The reason he wants clear 
self colors, —solid colors, —is because he can take these and combine them to get 
what he wants for any desired effect. If he has to use bi-colored Glads, or blended 
colors in the same Glad, or Glads that are flecked and speckled, his opportunities are 
greatly limited. 
He wants Glads that handle well. The buds must be set snugly to the stem. 
The Glad must be able to revive readily after rough handling, and hold up well in 
shipping. The florist also wants the Glad to be able to bloom out the tips after cut¬ 
ting. They must not droop in hot weather, nor the petal edges roll up or burn. He 
wants more than just two or three open, and they must be fairly regular in place¬ 
ment. The open flowers should just fill the space, should open wide and not conceal 
their faces. The form should be plain, or with variations that are very slight. He 
w r ants the spike to stay erect and gracefully straight, with no branches or crooks. The 
commercial grower for the florist trade wants the amateur Glad fan to try out all 
the numerous new kinds before he makes his investment in any new variety, because 
he knows that not one in hundreds ever meets his exacting requirements. 
As to colors the demand is very similar in all localities. Folks who buy Glads 
want the bright colors usually, avoiding those that are too weak and delicate, or no 
color in particular. For the florist the ultimate use of most flowers is for evening 
affairs, and therefore the color should show up well under artificial light. Pinks, 
especially the salmon and orange pinks, head the list as being most in demand, fol¬ 
lowed in order by lavender pinks, rose pinks, reds, yellows, and whites, and last of all 
the purples, dark reds, and smokies. 
Taken in the aggregate, the attitude of the florist is approximately the attitude 
of all the rest of us in this matter of the ideal Glad varieties. The over-enthusiastic 
Glad fan may easily be led off on some tangent, such as laciniations, crinkles, needle¬ 
points, hoods, stripes, mouse colors, eight-inch florets, miniatures, and so forth. But 
practical considerations will govern in the long run, whether for the florist’s work 
or for the ordinary home and garden decoration. 
THE GLAD IS A CUT FLOWER 
Glads will not do for landscaping. A bed of Glads is always scraggly, because 
they bloom so unevenly, and the spikes are so tall, and not of the same height, and 
always a few leaning over. If the spikes are not cut, the wilted blooms are unsightly. 
Glads do not like to grow in among other plants, such as borders for shrubs, and so 
forth, because they dislike being crowded by anything. Plant your Glads out in the 
vegetable garden with the purpose of gathering your crop as you do your vegetables. 
Glads are particularly suited for cutting, because they keep right on blooming 
if they are cut with the first flower open, lasting a week or more, by opening up two 
or three new buds each morning until the entire supply of buds on the spike is used 
up. And they do this without much loss in the quality of the individual blooms. The 
thick heavy spike has a big supply of food, enough to develop every bud into a fine 
flower. Let your spikes do their blooming indoors where you can enjoy them. Be¬ 
sides, the hot sun and the weather are hard on them outdoors. Most of us are too 
busy to spend much time admiring them out in the garden. Take them to where you 
spend your time.—the office, the kitchen, and shop, also the church, hospital, and 
sick room. Do not confine their use to special occasions only, but enjoy them while 
doing your daily tasks as far as possible. They are specially suited for this purpose, 
and you can get a tremendous amount of enjoyment out of even one spike in this way. 
CARE OF CUT SPIKES 
In cutting leave at least five leaves to develop the new bulb, if you care to save 
it. Changh the water once a day, because cool water has a freshening effect. The 
pores in the end of the spike become clogged, so cut off slantwise a thin slice each 
day, and keep the water clear. Do not cut the spike much longer than the flower 
head, because a long stem lacks the necessary pulling power to draw up moisture, and 
the blooms become inferior. Remove the wilted blooms and keep out of warm air 
currents. 
If you will place your spikes in cold water in a cool dark cellar, the wilting of 
the opened blooms may be retarded. In this way, with the opening of the later buds, 
spikes may be had with a larger number out at one time, with greater chances of their 
winning in the show room. Spikes may also be kept for considerable periods of time 
in refrigerators that will not freeze them. 
