2 
F. C. Hornberger, Home and Garden Service 
kinds of soil on the production of bulbs 
and flowers; for two years we grew con- 
siderable acreage along the coast of New 
Jersey in connection with our crops here, 
we also have had experimental work in 
progress in Florida for some years. For 
nearly twenty years, we have acted as 
plant testers for the U. S. Department of 
Agriculture, testing and growing all 
kinds of plants, trees and shrubs collected 
in all parts of the world. 
All corms, bulbs and seeds are merely 
plants in a dormant condition. A radi- 
cal change of climate or environment 
will affect them, more or less in the same 
degree that growing plants are affected 
by very radical changes. I do not say it 
is wrong for an eastern grower to have 
his bulbs grown in California or else' 
where because practically all growers or 
dealers from whom you purchase, when 
they are short of stock, purchase for re' 
sale from every section of the country. 
The point I wish to make is that when 
the importer of Australian or other vari' 
eties imports new untried varieties, he 
should first find out all about them in his 
home environment. He should acclima' 
tize them for you. If he imports them 
and has the stock grown for him in a 
very mild section, and then sells you the 
increase, he compels you to do all the ac' 
climatizing, in particular if you live in a 
section where the season is more short 
and severe. 
We have found that there are varie' 
ties that have been originated in the 
western part of our country that never 
do well in the east, and there are eastern 
varieties that will not do well in the 
west. How important then, must be the 
selection of varieties that have been pro' 
duced in other parts of the world, in par¬ 
ticular Australia and New Zealand 
where they have their longest day of the 
year when we have our shortest in De¬ 
cember and who are very near the equa¬ 
tor. I do not infer that all of their vari¬ 
eties will give us a lot of trouble, but I 
do say that you will gamble more with 
their varieties than you will with the 
home grown products. 
Nearly all the wonderful exhibitions 
of Glads, Dahlias, Peonies and other 
flowers, where the size and beauty are 
almost unbelievable, are grown in almost 
perfect conditions and surroundings; the 
environment that they like best to permit 
them to reach the very PEAK OF PER¬ 
FECTION, and here I wish to call your 
attention to more deception in the show 
room, using Glads as our subject. The 
amateur and the novice are led to believe 
that their chances are equal in the show 
room. They do not know or understand 
that many of the finest exhibitions are 
staged by professional exhibitors, who 
understand the building of the perfect 
seed bed, and if they try to duplicate in 
their average soil they come to grief, but 
this is where the wise Exhibitor has his 
innings. He tells us that in order to 
grow wonderful flowers we must pur¬ 
chase his bulbs. After many trials and 
disappointments, we finally come to be-, 
lieve that there is something wrong with 
our soil, or give some other reason and 
make the best of things. The consistent 
winner of prizes in the show room does 
not do so by virtue of the quality of his 
bulbs, he wins by virtue of his seed bed 
conditions, and the particular environ¬ 
ment, plant food, water or mulch his 
plants receive. My experimental work 
covering nearly twenty years has con¬ 
clusively proven my claims. 
Some years ago, I was one of the ten 
persons who helped to judge the Geneva, 
N. Y. Glad show. Our last work there 
was for the ten of us to decide on the 
most outstanding exhibit at the show and 
award it the President’s cup. We all 
agreed that the exhibition of Palmer’s 
Seedlings was by far the best thing in 
the show, yet the ten of us debated some 
time before we made the award. Each 
one realized the almost perfect seed bed 
these Glads had been produced in, an 
ideal soil, with every scientific aid avail¬ 
able, fertilizer, humus, water and mulch 
in the right proportions for a perfect 
crop of Gladiolus. But we had to agree 
that it was not a question of how these 
flowers were grown, but how shown; 
that was of particular interest. There 
were no rules that required any particu- 
