DEPENDABLE GLADS 
17 
BULB VITALITY 
Some growers disbud their stock of Glads which they are growing for the pro¬ 
duction of bulbs. They claim that the strength taken by the plant to produce the 
bloom should all go into the making of the best possible bulb. They are probably 
right. In any case, however, the fertilizing and watering and pampering that growers 
give their Glads for the production of the finest blooms do result in inferior bulbs. 
Many florists do not even dig their bulbs after harvesting the blooms for this reason. 
It seems that a Glad plant that has to rustle for a living puts all its energy into the 
bulb and the bulblet increase, while the one that has a plentiful supply of all that it 
needs for growth puts all its energy into the bloom and the seed-pods. There are ex¬ 
ceptions, of course, some varieties doing both. The seasons that are too dry to bring 
the Glads to bloom always result in fine, peppy, high-crowned bulbs. 
WHAT SIZE SHALL I BUY? 
This depends somewhat on what you wish to use them for. In general, the value 
of a bulb, and therefore its price, varies according to its diameter. No. 1 bulbs throw 
more spikes than No. 2 bulbs, but the quality is about the same. Florists use only 
No. 1 sizes for forcing in greenhouses. No. 3 and No. 4 sizes put all their energy 
into a single spike, and so a well grown high crowned medium sized bulb gives a very 
fine spike of bloom, and is probably the most satisfactory size to buy for the home 
garden. But from No. 5 and No. 6 bulbs the spikes are definitely inferior in most 
cases. In fact, in many varieties most growers do not get No. 6’s to bloom at all. 
However, it is the latter two sizes that produce the main crop of bulblets, which fact 
gives them a definite value. Since for most varieties only a small part of the bulb- 
lets will sprout, the value of bulblets is only a fractional part of the value of the bulbs. 
A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 
This old planet of ours has quite a variety of climates, especially with regard to 
the growing seasons of three to five months of each year. Variations in soils from 
what is desirable can be corrected to a large extent, because all plants require certain 
elements that can be supplied to the soil directly. But when it comes to such things 
as heat, rainfall, winds, humidity, and so forth, nothing has ever been done about it 
except to talk, as Mark Twain said. 
It is a well known fact that, though Glads will stand a lot of rough treatment 
from the elements, they nevertheless do greatly appreciate moisture and coolness. So 
much so, in fact, that one would hardly recognize the same variety grown in two dif¬ 
ferent sections of the country. I have never ceased to marvel at a Scarlet Wonder 
spike with seven open I once saw at a New England show, or at the picture of a Pur¬ 
ple Glory taken in Australia that had eight open. These two varieties as grown in 
central United States will average two to four open at one time. 
Flower petals are delicately constructed things. They are living, growing plant 
tissues, containing no protective surfaces such as plants build up against the ele¬ 
ments on leaf, stem and fruit. If the air is hot and dry, moisture is taken from the 
flower petals faster than the plant can supply it, and the result is bound to be an 
inferior bloom. If the air is moist and cool, there is little drain on the plant from 
the air, and it can then spend all its energy on opening up more and better blooms. 
Some of these pictures we see of spikes with a dozen florets open are really mis¬ 
representations, if they are not accompanied by an explanation of the conditions 
under which they were grown. Probably they opened the first half dozen the fust 
week, and the next half dozen the second week. 
Under the average mid-summer conditions of the great central area of the Unit- 
ed States such spikes are not produced. For most varieties the blooms will wilt m 
two or three days after opening. They simply are not able to counteract the wither¬ 
ing influence of the hot and dry air. So far as the opening up of a lot ot blooms is 
concerned, these Australian varieties are not the super-Glads one may be led to be¬ 
lieve they are from looking at their Australian pictures, because when they are grown 
here they do not behave that way. The same thing is true, probably to a much lesser 
degree, of varieties from other sections of the world. However, one must not m er 
that all varieties from the cool and moist countries are behaving’ that way. vv e have 
some very fine commercial Glads that came originally from a kindlier clima e, 
that may not entirely live up to their advance descriptions and yet are very tine 
things. 
