DEPENDABLE GLADS 
19 
color to the mother bulb year after year as long as it lives. The color sport is an ex¬ 
ception, but these sports are so extremely rare that they would not turn up in one 
garden in a hundred. The reason this question arises so frequently is the fact that 
some varieties are much stronger and more prolific than others, and it is these that 
in time crowd the others out, and your Glads in a few years will be reduced to only 
one or two kinds. 
DO GLADS CHANGE QUALITIES? 
It is a well known fact that Glad varieties differ in their adaptability to differ¬ 
ent climatic conditions and growing conditions, and in their ability to resist heat, 
drouth, rough handling, poor soil, and so forth. In fact, some Glads grown under 
widely different situations are hardly recognizable as the same variety. But aside 
from these obvious differences that are thus easily explained, glads do have more or 
less of what might be called unstableness. We have all felt that certain varieties 
we could name are not what they once were, and this feeling is not entirely due to 
the superior new varieties, either. This loss in quality is specially noticeable in seed¬ 
lings after the first year or so. A, seedling may appear to be a world beater the first 
year or two, but after that a disappointment. This is one of the sorrows of the hy¬ 
bridizer. Those seedlings that remain good are scarce. However, it is from this 
limited class we get our standard varieties. Varieties such as Dr. F. E. Bennett, Mr. 
W. H. Phipps, Minuet, and a few others, have not perceptibly changed through the 
years. But on the other hand, we cannot say as much for Le Marechal Foch, for ex¬ 
ample ,and a host of others that could be named, no matter what the conditions are 
under which they may be grown. 
A possible explanation for this deterioration in qualities is the fact that the 
modern Glad is pretty much of a hybrid. Some hybrids are not even able to breed 
on. The mule is an example. This gradual loss is not so evident in the colors of Glads 
as in other qualities, such as length of stem, size of bloom, and ability to reproduce. 
Some originally fine varieties have degenerated into nothing more than Cannas as 
far as the spike is concerned. 
Those varieties that have been able to resist all these tendencies over a period 
of years are the so-called standard kinds. They can almost be named on the fingers 
of the two hands. Is it any wonder the commercial growers of bulbs are chary of 
the new varieties? 
GLAD BREEDING 
In the heart of the flower you will find the pistil, which has thre<e branches at 
the tip. The other three stems with the anthers on their tips ane the stamens. The 
anthers contain the pollen grains, which are ripe for use along about ten o’clock. I 
detach the whole stamen, using a small forceps, or my fingers, and brush the anthers 
against the tips of th,e pistils on the seed parent. I repeat the same operation the 
following day, using fresh pollen from the same plant as before. You need not cover 
the flower, because the wind and insects do not interfere to any extent. It is best 
not to pollenize more than half the blooms of a spike. I keep careful records of ev¬ 
ery cross made. It takes about three weeks for the seed to ripen. 
I plant the seed in the early spring rather thickly in shallow trenches, and keep 
moist. It takes them about three weeks to sprout. Keep covered with lath frames, 
or the sun will burn them off. They should bloom the following season. Before you 
set your heart too strongly on any certain one, give it a three year trial. So many go 
bad after the first two seasons. Even then, there is no keener delight than to go out 
each morning to the seedling’ bed to see what has bloomed during the night. 
Varieties differ greatly in value as parents. Most of the standard strong grow¬ 
ing kinds are very apt to transmit good qualities to their offspring. A variety seems 
to be most potent for this purpose in the first few years after introduction. Never 
use an old variety for breeding. If you discover a good cross, repeat it on a larger 
scale, as you are then more likely to get a seedling combining all the good points oi 
both parents. Your selection of parents depends on what you are working tor. in 
general, like will produce like, a yellow on a yellow producing a yellow, for example. 
Two good keepers will give you a good keeper. And so on. Bad traits of the paients 
are very apt to show up in the seedlings. 
The back yard amateur has as good a chance as the specialist to produce a world 
beater, because the best parents for this purpose are all in commerce, and a variety 
not good enough to name and introduce is not good enough to breed with. We need 
