18 
THE FOSS HEATON GLAD GARDENS, CRESTON, IOWA 
However, the place of origin does not have anything to do with the qualities of 
a Glad. Many of the finest and most dependable varieties have come from a gentle 
climate. The weaker Glads get away from the originator in such a climate because 
he has no way of determining which ones have the necessary stamina. It takes a 
rugged climate to weed out the poor ones. Where Prims are in great favor is where 
they do well, and this is largely confined to those sections where the climate is moist 
and cool. Their daintiness and delicacy are soon blasted by these hot winds. 
THE STEM OF A GLAD 
That handy stem is another big reason why Glads are so popular. It is straight 
and stout and just about the right length to be convenient. It holds the flower up out 
of the fruit jar or milk bottle or vase, and keeps it right where you want it to be. 
There never was so handy a handle for any flower. By this handle you can place 
your flower in any conceivable position your fancy may dictate, and expect it to re¬ 
main there for days, because that spike has a good store of food for the expanding 
flowers, from which they will draw nourishment for a week or more. For basket, 
vase, bowl, spray, wreath, or corsage, or whatever you like, the Glad bloom can easity 
be held to its desired place, with a maximum of effectiveness and a minimum of effort. 
INFORMALITIES 
The older I get the more I feel the folly and futility of laying down hard and fast 
rules. General principles are always necessary, but it is going too far when we arbi¬ 
trarily undertake to outline a thing in all of the exactness of detail. It is not Nature’s 
way. Do we ever find two people of a race exactly alike, or two trees of a species, 
or even two leaves on a tree, or two petals on a rose? If it were not for this delight¬ 
ful informality of Nature, how monotonous and terrible life would be. Imagine going 
through a forest and finding every tree exactly alike, or through a city and finding 
every person exactly alike. That would be infinitely worse than finding every dwell¬ 
ing in that city exactly alike. Even the children in a family are delightfully different. 
So in a Glad, far from being subjects for penalties, I think such little informali¬ 
ties as a slight twist in a spike, or a bloom slightly misplaced or off the regular form, 
or with one or two freckles on its face called flecks, or with one or two (not more) 
dimples on its cheek called ruffles, should indulgently be regarded as delightfully 
becoming, 
Take a ruler with you when you judge a flower, although the Creator of the uni¬ 
verse did not when He made it. Give it 12 points if the bloom measures 6 inches, but 
if it measures only 5% inches, give it only 11 points. Give it 8 points for 20 buds, but 
one point less if there happens to be one bud less than that, and 3 points less if there 
are 5 less buds. Penalize that beautiful flower that you did not make by taking a 
point off for a bloom not looking rigidly straight ahead, and another point off because 
there is a slight twist in its graceful stem, and another point off because it has a 
freckle on its lovely face. 
MORE GRACE 
Pictures of Glads from Australia show a stiff straight stem with a whole flock 
of florets precisely placed in a neat double row, with a two-inch tassel of unopened 
buds at the top. Pictures of Glads from England, also New England, show the ex¬ 
quisitely graceful and delicately poised Prim in all of its dainty glory. Is there a 
happy medium between these two apparently widely divergent viewpoints as to what 
a Glad should be? I think there is. The German and many American and Canadian 
varieties are showing the way. There is without a doubt a strong demand everywhere 
in all countries for a spike with plenty open at one time, v/ith plenty of size. We can 
have these things and still have the grace and poise of the Prim. Leave out the glaring 
faults of the Prim, its smallness, its delicate and starved look, its shamefaced hood. 
We will then by this means do away with the stiffness of the Australian type. The 
Prim and the Aussie are merely the carrying to extremes of otherwise very desirable 
qualities. 
GORGEOUSNESS 
* . • 
The demand for. massiveness, that is, plenty of size and plenty open, is unmistak¬ 
able. The trend is all that way, no matter for what purpose the Glad is to be used. 
Fullness and effectiveness are wanted whether in the garden or in the show room, in 
the basket or in the vase and bowl, in the spray and wreath or in the shop window. 
