DEPENDABLE GLADS 
21 
allowed to get too dry during storage. A good storage practice is to keep them in 
tight paper bags in a cool cellar. For expensive varieties it will be very profitable 
to break the husk just before planting, using the point of a pen knife. Be careful not 
to injure in the least the tender fleshy part. The husk need not be removed, the 
object being to allow the moisture to reach the kernel to start the growth. 
Bulblets should not be planted over three or four inches deep, and must be 
planted early in the spring to be assured of moisture at sprouting time. It is best 
to plant rather thickly in the row, at least fifty or more to the foot. 
WHEN TO PLANT 
Glad plants are somewhat resistant to frost, requiring several degrees below 
freezing to kill them. Therefore, you may plant as early in the spring as you can 
safely work the ground, because late frosts will do no damage. Early plantings of 
large bulbs will bloom before the heat of August days sets in with its blistering rav¬ 
ages. Another way to avoid the heat of mid-summer is to plant late, or about July 
1st, for the flowers to arrive in the cool of September. Some folks plant large 
bulbs at intervals of about two weeks, so as to have a succession of blooms all sum¬ 
mer. A better way to have a continuous blooming season is to plant all the differ¬ 
ent sizes at the same time early in the spring, because the blooming period of a 
bulb varies inversely according to its size, large bulbs first and the smallest last. 
You can have a continuous supply of all sizes of bulbs of a variety if you will save 
your bulblets and plant them with your bulbs at planting time. 
Commercial growers usually wait until the weather is somewhat settled before 
making their more extensive plantings. Planting operations and weed control, to be 
effective and economical, must not be interrupted too much. For the flower mar¬ 
kets they plant early varieties very early, and late varieties late, and others at in¬ 
tervals in between. 
WHERE TO PLANT 
I think too much of Glads to see you planting them in borders, against build¬ 
ings or fences, or in among other plants or bushes. They seem to have a hurt look 
in such places. You know your sweet corn would look spindly, and your tomatoes 
would be puny, if you tried to raise them there. Plant your Glads out in your vege¬ 
table garden, or in a place of similar location, where they can have elbow room and 
the free open air all around them. Glads enjoy the sunshine the whole day. 
Any soil that will raise good vegetables will raise fine Glads. It must be well 
drained. It seems that Glads have been grown in about every conceivable climate and 
soil on earth, and have done well, provided the soil had a little plant food, and the 
season was at least a couple of months long. 
HOW TO PLANT 
Much may be said in favor of planting to a depth of five or six inches. The 
roots stand a better chance of being kept moist and cool in the heat of the sum¬ 
mer, and the/ plants are less likely to fall over at blooming time in the wind and rain. 
At blooming time most plants send out an expansive network of fine roots as a 
special set of feeders for the flowers. These roots reach towards the upper levels 
of the soil. Scrape the surface of the ground in a cornfield at tasseling time, and 
you will find myriads of them. If the bulb is planted at the six inch depth, these 
roots will have more room in which to expand, and a larger feeding area. The result 
will be a finer flower. 
It is the original set of roots that grow the foliage, which in turn grows the 
new bulb. So those who grow for the bulb and bulblet increase do not concern 
themselves about the flower, and hence need not plant at the greater depths. They 
have another good reason for the more shallow depth in the fact that it is much 
more economical. The depth to use for commercial plantings depends on the nature 
of the soil, a loose sandy soil requiring more depth than a clay loam, for example. 
My field plantings are about three inches deep. Some growers claim a better bulb- 
let increase for the more shallow plantings. 
For the best flowers, do not plant closer than three or four inches apart in the 
row. If you plant single file, you can cultivate close up to the plants on both sides 
of the row. The distance between rows depends on your means of cultivating, as 
well as the amount of land available, and also on the amount of tramping you are 
likely to do between the rows along about blooming time. Large bulbs should be 
