HOWDY FOLKS 
It is a real pleasure to greet my old friends 
again and to meet you newcomers, who I trust 
will be my friends for a long time to come. 
I hope that your yards and gardens were a 
constant source of pleasure during the past 
season and that they will be even more glori¬ 
ous during the coming summer. I wish that I 
could have accompanied each of you through 
my field at blooming time and helped you 
to select the glads for your own garden. Since 
this was impossible, I shall do my best (which 
is poor enough) to paint an honest word pic¬ 
ture of the many kinds so that those you 
choose will prove really satisfactory at bloom¬ 
ing time. 
Growing conditions for bulbs have been 
extra good here this season and mine are 
larger and better than ever before. You know, 
bulbs are just storehouses of energy and while 
they all look a good bit alike there is some 
difference in the flowers they produce. Have 
you noticed how often you see the phrase, 
“Oregon Grown,” in flower and bulb adver¬ 
tisements? It has become identified with plant 
products of unexcelled merit. There are sev¬ 
eral reasons, the soil and climatic conditions 
are nearly perfect, and we are far enough 
north to get the vigorous growth for which 
northern grown seeds, plants and bulbs are so 
justly famous, yet not so far but that we have 
a sufficiently long growing season. 
The Glad Ranch is situated in Central Ore¬ 
gon, well up in the Deschutes river valley, on 
a strip that has been claimed from a waste of 
sage-covered, sandy desert by irrigation. 
(This will be under the proposed Wikiup Fed¬ 
eral Irrigation Project). It is a section par¬ 
ticularly adapted to the growing of glad bulbs 
and certain other plants. The desert stretches 
out to the east while to the west stand the 
perpetually snowclad Cascade Mountains, 
which furnish our water for irrigation. “The 
world’s most beautiful skyline” they are often 
called. Hot, sunny desert days and cold moun¬ 
tain nights, proper soil, controlled irrigation 
and proper attention combine to produce 
strong, vigorous bulbs, the kind that send 
those prize winning spikes so gratifying to the 
hard-working gardener. 
Do you buy your bulbs from a specialist? 
Everyone should, strong competition keeps 
his prices as low as production costs will per¬ 
mit and his success depends so much upon 
his reputation that he must have only the 
best. The natural instinct that prompts spe¬ 
cializing is proof of his undivided attention. 
VARIETIES—This year I am listing over 
320 varieties, originations by the leading hy¬ 
bridizers of America, Europe and Australia. 
All types, all colors, early and late bloomers. 
They have been selected from my trials of 
over 800 varieties for their beauty and their 
popularily. My title, “Reliable Gladiolus” is 
more than empty words. I try to list nothing 
but reliable, consistent performers as I don’t 
think most gardeners want to bother with any 
flower requiring special care when he can 
have just as much beauty without it. I have 
listed a few this year that have not proved to 
be such vigorous growers (as you will note in 
some descriptions), but they are all very 
beautiful and popular and I can’t find a simi¬ 
lar one that is better. 
Each year members of the American Gladi¬ 
olus Society vote for their favorite varieties. 
Here are the leading 10 of the last poll: 1, Pic¬ 
ardy; 2, Minuet; 3, Betty Nuthall; 4, Marmora; 
5, Mr. W. H. Phipps; 6, Mother Machree; 7, 
Maid of Orleans; 8, Dr. F. E. Bennett; 9, 
Mildred-Louise; 10, Pfitzers Triumph. You 
will find eight of these listed here at 5 cents 
each, I also list 17 of the leading 25. Can you 
think of more convincing proof that price does 
not make the glad? The only reason for high 
price is scarcity of stock due either to new¬ 
ness or slow propagating qualities. Weak 
growers aren’t worth your space and of the 
new ones only about 5 per cent ever prove 
really worth growing on. 
That is why I try to grow mostly established 
varieties that have proved their worth. How¬ 
ever, I am listing several that you probably 
won’t find elsewhere, some are older ones 
that were dropped by many to make room for 
newer but often inferior kinds, others have 
never been properly advertised. A lot of these 
“forgotten glads” are better than their more 
widely publicized relatives and the real flower 
lover doesn’t give a hang whether a flower is 
famous or not just so it is “lovely to look at.” 
You will find here a selection to suit the 
most varied and discriminating taste, I don’t 
expect you to like them all, I don’t myself, 
but then if it were not for difference in opin¬ 
ion horse-racing and many other things would 
not be where they are today. 
DESCRIPTIONS—This year I am using 
plain, old-fashioned color names with an oc¬ 
casional reference to Fischer color chart for 
people who are color conscious and know the 
new system of naming colors in relation to 
their position in the solar spectrum. Here is 
my list of color names followed by their mod¬ 
ern equivalent: Red purple—red violet; rose 
purple—violet red; lavendar—pale red violet; 
orchid—pale violet red; pink—pale red; salm¬ 
on pink—pale orange red; salmon—light 
orange red; scarlet—orange red. Most listed as 
orange are red orange as few glads are true 
orange. The remaining colors, red, rose, yel¬ 
low, etc., are usual names known to all. All 
colors come in various shades from dark to 
pale and. many are blended, such as salmon- 
rose, rose-red, etc. Often descriptions seem to 
indicate color combinations not harmonious 
but nature takes care of this and shades them 
together perfectly. 
Where I have not specified type it is gener¬ 
ally the common plain petaled, wide open 
floret known as Grandiflora. Other types are: 
Ruffled—edge of petals crimped or ruffled. 
Laciniated—-small flowers with roughly cut 
borders as though edge had been tom off. 
These are very artistic and deserve much 
more attention for small bouquets and for use 
with other flowers, also for naturalizing and 
in rock gardens. Primulinas generally have 
rather small hooded florets. From this race 
