204 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 3, 1860. 
and bloomed ten thousand seedlings thrice told in seven 
years, and had them by the “ skep bushel,” like a young 
Suffolk hero, who had the frost among them last October. 
He, luckily, got into a good shop for Gladioluses, “just 
turned off' a year ago.” His predecessor must have been 
a cross-breeder, and have taken all his flowering “roots ” 
away with him, leaving only a “ bushel skepful ” to our 
friend to prove ; at which he “ was very much pleased to 
see so many,” and much disappointed when he found 
he had no flowers in the autumn. “ I took them up,” he 
goes on to say, “ and hundreds of them are not bigger 
than Filbert-nuts, and some of them are as big as English 
Walnuts, and there are a few of a fine medium size.” 
Well, being “ at a loss what to do with them now. Should 
they be pulled into pieces, or singly, as they are, most of 
them in clusters, eight or ten at a cluster P also, will 
they stand frost, as some of mine turned soft just like 
Potatoes after they had been frosted?” 
Up to the year 1833 there were very few who could 
give but one answer about how this Suffolk gardener 
ought to proceed with his three sizes of Gladiolus seed¬ 
lings, supposing them to be such, and not to have been 
much hurt, or many of them lost by the frost. From 
1833 to 1818 or 1850, few who have grown the family 
could decide which of two courses was the better for him 
to adopt; and from 1850 to the present hour there have 
been constantly before our eyes three ways for him to 
follow, and each of the three was right, and two out of 
the three ways must have, of necessity, been wrong— 
been wrong, according to circumstances, if you can un¬ 
derstand how that could be. But the fact is, the proper 
management of Gladioli has become a puzzle-peg to all 
but the very old, and those only who are obliged to learn 
all about them, in order to make bread and cheese out of 
selling them. 
Going back to 1831, I find that all the Gladioli then 
in cultivation, both the Cape species and the cross 
seedlings from cardinalis, blandus, oppositiflorus, and 
i t fist is, required one uniform treatment—to be repotted 
at the beginning of October ; to grow in winter, and to 
flower in May and June following ; to be lifted early in 
July, and to be kept dry to the end of September. 
But in the year 1831 we heard of a new Gladiolus on 
the Continent that was introduced there from Port Natal, 
in the eastern part of the Cape Colony. It was soon in 
the English market at 21s. a “ rootand I think I paid 
that price for it to Mr, Wheeler, of Warminster. It was 
published a,s psittacinus and Natalensis, was more hardy 
than any of the west Cape species, and of an entirely 
different habit from them, growing from February to 
October, and resting all the winter; but it would not 
cross with any of the other Cape species, or with the 
crosses between them. It was, moreover, ten times more 
free in producing offspring bulbs of all sizes, from that of 
a pin’s head to those of all the kinds of small nuts with 
which we were acquainted; and that soon caused it to 
reach every part of the three kingdoms, and to be the 
cheapest and most common of all the race. 
As early as 1834 I had more of it than I knew what to 
do with—not a “ bushel skepful,” but some quarts of 
small fry of various sizes ; and from the statements of our 
Suffolk friend, it strikes me that this is his very plant, or 
something very near it in genealogical descent. The 
method I then adopted to hurry on into flowering size 
with that small fry, is the nearest that I can now think of 
for him to adopt to prove what remains from the frost of 
his bushel skepful. I drew drills for it as for early Peas, 
and put in the smallest size just as they now do Sangster’s 
No. 1 Pea. The second size in a way between sowing 
early Peas and Mazagan Beans, and the third after the 
manner of early frame Potatoes ; and, if you believe me, 
they all did so well that I have never yet altered the plan. 
Some of all the sizes flowered the following autumn ; but, 
of course, not such bouncers as the old “ roots ” did make. 
Meantime, and for a long period subsequently, the 
cross-breeders were industriously at work within the 
circle which Dean Herbert abandoned in 1828. Some 
very fine seedlings were thus obtained, it is true ; and to 
those who did not know to the contrary, they appeared 
to be great improvements. But they were nothing of the 
kind in our eyes:—the striped ones were not nearly so 
good as their father cardinalis ; Colvillii is not half so 
good as the cardinal at the present day; the whites with 
pale red markings were not superior to oppositiflorus, 
then erroneously in the catalogues as grandiflorus; the 
faint creamy whites with paler markings were not to be 
matched with blandus itself, which brought them into the 
world ; and all the seifs, in rose, purple, and scarlet, were 
only brighter or fainter than Sweet’s pudibundus without 
attaining its full size. 
Thus the whole went round and round for the space of 
full ten years, to the joy and gladness of the know-not- 
betters, and to the confirmation of the views and the 
anrasement of the old pilgrims, who assert that when once 
a florist gets into a circle with his crosses, Jupiter himself 
could never get him out of the rut without fresh blood. 
And so it was till the now old psittacinus, or Natalensis, 
reached Sydney, in Australia; and there, being more at 
home in the climate and changes of the weather, took to 
the sporting mood, and crossed with the old blood of pudi¬ 
bundus, or one of its allies, producing the “ root ” now 
called Gandavensis —a most rascally fictitious name, point¬ 
ing to Ghent as the place of its birth instead of to Sydney, 
where it first came on the stage. 
Well, this Gandavensis inherited more of the peculiari¬ 
ties of the Natal parent than those of the other side of 
the breed; and the result ends in all this confusion in the 
practice of dealing with the two strains, or three strains, 
as the dealers hold forth ; but assuredly there are yet 
but two legal strains in the whole family :—the strain of 
cardinalis, which requires to be planted in October, and 
to rest from the end of June to that time ; and the new 
strain of Natalensis, alias psittacinus. The so-called 
strains of racemosus and Gandavensis are dry as fiddle¬ 
sticks, casting dust and ashes into the eyes of the best 
customers, and of no use, or sense, or pleasure to any 
one but to the know-noughts. The racemosa turn was 
a good hit in the old circle, and nothing more, nor any 
change of management from the October planting of its 
kindred. Gandavensis being the first-born of a new race 
or sti’ain from Natalensis, cannot stand at the head of 
that race as long as there is any faith in heraldry; but 
is the just and lawful heir to the fame, the fortunes, and 
the success of that celebrated and justly admired turn 
in the family. 
Now, consider well, and submit high but preposterous 
notions about strains and straining puzzles to the rule 
of ancient law and common sense; and by one stroke you 
will necessarily simplify the proper culture of Gladioli 
ten-fold, and in the same ratio increase the demand for 
them. There is nothing on the face of this earth moi^e 
simple than to know how to do Gladioli when once you get 
hold of the right key to the potting or planting of them. 
There are but two keys, and one of them opens from the 
middle of September to the end of November; and during 
that period every Gladiolus that was born in this world 
before the Natalensis cross-breeded, fifteen years back, 
will do to be planted, and will suffer if it be not 
planted or potted then ; but early in October is the best 
time to put it in. The second key opens from the 
first day of February to the last week in May ; but, like 
the autumn ones, to be too soon or too late in the spring, 
does not suit many of them, and is against the finest 
kinds decidedly. Auy one to whom cardinalis, blajidus, 
and oppositiflorus are not strangers, will easily recognise 
any ot their offspring to a thousand generations ; but 
that knowledge cannot be taught by writing or talking— 
it belongs to a law of the mind called intuitive perception ; 
one perceives it in the mind’s eye, but cannot so describe 
it as to teach another. 
