DEPENDABLE GLADS 
25 
DIGGING THE BULBS 
If your Glad plants show signs of turning brown in September, they should be 
dug at once. Dormant bulbs should not be allowed to lie in the wet ground, because 
if they should start sprouts again it would be a real injury to the bulb. Bulblet stock 
often ripens off in late summer, and should be dug at once for the same reason. As 
long as the leaves are green the bulb is growing and bulblets are setting on. This 
bulb and bulblet growth is at its maximum just before frost. A frost that kills the 
stems will not harm the bulb, but the bulb is easily killed if the frost reaches that far 
into the ground. We wash all our bulbs, using barrel churns. 
For my commercial plantings I use a U-shaped knife blade attachment for my 
tractors, that passes just beneath the row of bulbs, loosening the soil and bulbs, but 
leaving the stems upright for easy handling. The bulblets cling readily when the 
plant is pulled out of this loose soil. The stems are then cut off, and the bulbs sealed 
in grain bags and taken to the bulbhouse washing platform. If the bulblets are high- 
priced, considerable scratching is done in this loose soil, much in the manner of an 
industrious hen. 
CURING AND STORING 
Do not cure bulbs in the direct sunlight. A dry place with plenty of air circula¬ 
tion is all that is needed. Slow curing is what they are used to in their natural state. 
The storeroom must be kept dry and frost-proof. I place my bulbs in shallow trays 
with screen wire bottoms directly in the storeroom to cure as soon as they are washed. 
For curing small quatities paper bags with the tops left open are fine. About a month 
after digging the old bulb may very easily be removed. This is the right time for 
cleaning bulbs. Separate the bulblets and place them in tight paper bags where it is 
not too dry, but do not let them mold. Inspect your bulbs frequently during the win¬ 
ter to be sure that no mold appears, as it will kill them. A sure cure for mold is the 
direct rays of the sun for a few hours. 
PRECAUTIONS 
The twin nightmares of the conscientious Glad grower are diseases and rogues. 
I take all the precautions I know of, and spare no expense, in keeping my stock clean 
of these. 
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 disinfectant, and 
plant in new ground, and then wash all containers, trays, and so forth. Every new 
bulb or bulblet that comes to my place is placed under a strong hand-glass, 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 on my place is disinfected. 
When a Glad plant is found dying of disease, it is natural to feel sorry for it. 
But when a rogue appears, especially in the high priced beds, the natural tendency is 
to cuss, and if I’m alone I do it most heartily. My customers would feel the same 
way about it. Therefore, I make a special effort to get rid of rogues. Whenever I 
can do so, for new varieties I plant stock that will bloom the first year, so as to be 
able to identify it at once. My field crop is brought to the bulbhouse in sealed grain 
bags. Only one variety is ever allowed in the room where washing or cleaning opera¬ 
tions are going on. And so forth. 
I regard it as extremely important to keep stock offered for sale perfectly clean, 
because perhaps more Glad enthusiasts than we realize have lost their keenness for 
this flower on account of trouble with disease. Another source of disappointment, 
causing perhaps even greater loss of zest for Glads among home gardeners, is the use 
of old, flat, worn-out bulbs. Clean, young, true-to-name bulbs are the only kind for a 
grower to send out, cost what it may. 
