pure cream and again go quite pinkish lavender at the petal edges; does not do 
much from small bulbs, needs lots of water, for the huge spikes; it is not of much 
use in hybridization work, and the bulbs are rather flat in type; yet when one 
gets a spike with a dozen perfectly shaped flowers open at once as Queen Mary 
does, it will take a lot of beating to put it out. If one wishes a variety very 
similar to Queen Mary, but that does not vary in color, Mair’s Glenburn will be 
worth a trial. 
The newer Marie is a bit whiter than Glenburn, and the past season saw 
many exhibition spikes of this variety with 10 good blooms open on a fine long 
spike that had an extra nicely finished top, Mrs. Finnic, a new satiny salmon rose, 
will be one of the very best liked of the Mair varieties when more widely grown. 
R. Y. Mair is a great new crimson scarlet, with a darker blotch and has won 
many prizes in the past two seasons, both in the United States and Canada, and 
anyone interested in reds should be sure to try it. Dr. Buchan attracted much 
interest the past season, because of its odd but very pretty color combination; the 
outer petals are scarlet and the inner ones violet, with a white throat. Of the 
newer ones, Glen, a salmon flaked scarlet, with darker center line; Minnock, 
a salmon apricot that gave fine exhibition spikes the past season, and Daffodil, 
a strong growing golden yellow that was a typical Mair spike, and may prove 
the best yellow yet, seemed the most interesting. Alexandria, a straw ground 
color slightly rose pink at edges; Conjurer, smoky salmon rose, with a very large 
spike, and especially Southport, a rose pink self, extra large, all over seem to 
have a future from one season’s experience. 
It is quite a trip “Down Under” from Europe, but here we are in Australia 
and we find in this great Gladiolus land many fine varieties. To realize that 
almost 20 years ago the famous variety Mrs. Thomas Rattray was originated 
here, and with this wonderful Glad for a start it is not to be wondered that there 
has been much progress in the quality of the Gladiolus in these past 25 years. 
Mrs . Rattray to-day, when well grown, can push many of the best recent rose 
pinks off the show bench. The Australian hybridizers used Mrs. Rattray ex¬ 
tensively in their work, holding the good qualities, getting a wider range of color 
and more size of bloom, with better and more consistent growth, largely by the 
use of Lemoine’s varieties in the crossing; so to-day we find the better Australian 
growers holding the fine shaped spike and perfect placement as the greatest 
requirement in their exhibition standards. 
Errey Brothers, from Camperdown, in Victoria, are the best known of the 
Australian growers in this country, for their varieties have been imported and 
grown in the United States for a number of years; and among the older ones 
Victor and Ensign, the “red and white twins”; Averill, the good orange; 
Nimrod , the leader of the dark reds until recently; Melissa, buff yellow, flecked 
pink; Lindenow, a pure cream, and Elegance, a cream touched with lilac, and 
still a great favorite of Dr. Stevens, one of New England’s best exhibitors. Later 
came the great smoky Marmora; the delicately pretty salmon pink Alpheus, that, 
even if not large, will find a place in my garden for many years; the beautiful 
ever straight Laidley, rose pink with a cream throat; and the popular deep 
yellow Canberra, that we call the “best yellow”, as it has less faults for ex¬ 
hibition than any other yellow. Next came Mrs. S. A. Errey, a great step ahead 
in the orange-color class and in spite of its bad fault of burning under certain 
weather conditions, is the greatest exhibition orange to-day (it won the Cham¬ 
pionship at the N. E. G. S. Show for Mr. Kenneth Weale in 1933) ; Red Lory, 
that carmine rose with the darker blotch, that has won many championships all 
over the world in the past five years; and Esme Desailly, possibly not so well 
known as the former two, but it is a great show Glad; color is of an attractive 
salmon pink shade, the lower petals being cream and produces exhibition spikes 
very consistently. At about this time Errey sent out Cassandra, a white so 
heavily marked with bright pink that one might pick it out as a showy Lemoine 
