Metzner Floral Company 
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA 
Metzner’s Panama-Pacific Grand Prize Strain of Gladioli is 
the result of hybridizing and crossing of high grade imported 
varieties and novelties not generally listed in trade catalogues. 
From the original seed produced and saved at our nursery, 
Mountain View, California, this wonderful strain has been de¬ 
veloped and improved. 
The first public exhibition of seedlings consisted of about 
800 bulbs, planted under the supervision of our Mr. Metzner in 
the Horticultural Gardens of the Panama-Pacific International 
Exposition held at San Francisco, Cal., in 1915. 
The exhibit was the center of attraction for several months 
by reason of the extraordinary size of the flowers, the unusual 
length and strength of spikes and the wonderful diversity of 
new and rare colors. 
In competition with numerous exhibits from various sec¬ 
tions of this country and abroad, the exhibit was awarded the 
Grand Prize, the highest distinction of honor given at the Ex¬ 
position in any class of exhibits. 
At the close of the Exposition in December, 1915, all of the 
bulbs in the growing exhibit of the Metzner Floral Company 
were carefully tagged and removed to our nursery at Mountain 
View, and after a season of ripening re-planted in the spring of 
1916. 
We have continued our work of careful selection and cross¬ 
ing and as a result now have a strain which for range of color 
is unlimited, and for richness of color scarcely equalled by the 
orchid. 
Seed of our new crossings planted in February, 1916, were 
in bloom in July, 1916, many of them producing flowers 5 y 2 
inches in diameter, a number of them producing more than three 
side laterals or flower spikes. 
