DEPENDABLE GLADS 
23 
as a protection from sudden winds. You may have more blooms open if you cut 
a day or so ahead of the show, and place in a cool cellar. Long spikes, with correct 
facing and spacing, and plenty open, and fresh blooms, are all points that win the 
favor of the judges. 
CAN WE AVOID CROOKED STEMS? 
One well known grower decided to accept the inevitable this past show season 
by offering prizes in a special class for crooked spikes. But as a rule the crook in a 
spike is about as unwelcome as any other kind of a crook. We have all noticed 
that September grown spikes are straighter. This means that hot winds is the cause 
very probably. Experiments seem to bear this out. I have found that an efficient 
shield from the hot South winds is very good medicine for crookedness. Plant deep, 
keep moist, and erect a windbreak, and the evil is lessened. Try enclosing your little 
bed in a cheese-cloth tent. This lessens the glare of the sun as well as the force of 
the hot winds. 
DIGGING THE BULBS 
When the plants begin to die down following the blooming period, the bulbs 
should not be left in the ground, because the fall rains harm the bulbs that are 
dormant. Glads may be dug at any time. Cut the stems off close to the bulbs as 
soon as they are lifted. The killing of the stems by frost will not harm the bulb, 
but the bulbs themselves are easily killed by freezing. But as long as the leaves are 
green the bulb is growing and setting bulblets. I remove all the soil by using a barrel 
churn and lots of water. 
CURING AND STORING 
Do not cure in the direct sunlight. A dry place with plenty of air is all that 
is needed. I place my bulbs in shallow" trays with screen wire bottoms directly in 
the storeroom to cure. Slow curing is what they are used to growing wild in Africa. 
Keep the storeroom dry and frost-proof- Paper bags left open are fine for smaller 
quantities. 
About a month after digging the bulbs are ready for cleaning, as the old bulbs 
may then be easily removed. Separate the bulblets and place them in sealed paper 
bags in a moist location, but do not let them mold. Mold will also sometimes kill 
bulbs. 
HOW I AVOID DISEASES AND ROGUES 
There will be no disease unless there is a specific germ, or spore, present in 
the* plant. If your stock of bulbs is germ-free, you will have no disease in your bulbs. 
This talk of soil conditions, or storage conditions as causing disease is all nonsense. 
The way to free your stock of disease is to destroy utterly all infected 
bulbs, and treat the remainder of your bulbs with corrosive sublimate, or similar dis¬ 
infectant, and plant in new ground, and then disinfect all containers, trays, and so 
forth. Every new bulb, or bulblet, that comes to my place is placed under a strong 
handglass, to find every speck of possible disease, and each speck is cut out if the 
bulb is valuable. As a further precaution, every bulb that is planted every year is 
disinfected. 
Rogues are a trial and tribulation in some of the new stock that comes to my 
place- Very seldom do I buy bulblets when I stock up on new varieties. By 
getting small bulbs I can bloom and identify every new bulb, the rogues thus bloom¬ 
ing being sent sky-high in the general direction of the dump. There was a time last 
summer when the air was surcharged with lightning and laden with brimstone near 
a bed of Picardy when one of them turned up an Alice Tiplady. If I feel that way 
about it, I naturally conclude that my customers will feel the same way. Hence the ex¬ 
treme care I use in keeping my stock true to name. 
GLAD DISEASES 
There are four or five diseases affecting Glad bulbs, including the common 
scab disease and several different kinds of rot. Scab does not work on the bulb 
in storage, while the rots do. The latter will reduce the bulb to a mummy by spring. 
Scab causes circular, shallow, shiny dark depressions on the surface of the bulb, 
which are easily removed and come clean. The bacteria spread during the growth 
