Hornberger’s Home and Garden Service 
7 
covers a wide range of territory; all growing is done without irrigation. Our con¬ 
ditions will represent the general growing conditions under the better type soils 
found in New York, Pennsylvania and the New England states under non-irrigation 
methods.. I think in the territory I mention, soil formation, topography, etc., are more 
or less similar, and it is my opinion that in this area live a very large percentage of 
our population. Each year we grow Glads on a different farm or farms, and where 
no Glads have ever been grown before. This results in an experience that includes 
all kinds of soils and environments. 
The introducer of Palmer varieties says they are good propagators, but he uses 
irrigation methods for new high priced stock; we do not. We have found Picardy one 
of the fastest propagators we have ever grown, but we have also found some of the 
Palmer varieties among the slowest propagators we have ever grown. Our main speci¬ 
alty for twenty years has been bulblet propagation, I think we are generally recog¬ 
nized as one of the leading propagators of bulblets and young stock, by non-irrigation 
methods, in the country. We have found Champlain (Palmer) one of the slowest 
and most difficult propagators we have ever grown, Wasaga is also quite slow hut 
a very lovely color, I regard the color as outstanding, Pirate has also been very slow 
as a propagator, and the color ordinary. Spray of Gold (Palmer) has been dissa- 
pointing; with us the stems are very short, even from large bulbs, the flowers very 
small, and the color not equal to Golden Dream or other popular yellows. There are 
some very fine varieties among the Palmer originations, but many are quite ordinary, 
and even inferior under adverse conditions. The same rule holds good for varieties 
from all other originators. There are always a few that are outstanding in quality 
and color, while others will be quite ordinary and some inferior under more difficult 
growing conditions than that furnished by irrigation. This rule holds good every¬ 
where, there are many other flowers and plants that you can secure better results with 
when grown in a cold frame, greenhouse, or with the aid of special irrigation facili¬ 
ties, and culture, than when planted and grown under average, non-irrigation field 
culture. 
Palmer varieties are of very recent introduction, I think most of them within 
the last 5 years, and as the introducer says, they are introduced with very little stock 
available, hence the higher prices for them. The only fair way in making comparison 
with the product of other originators is to compare them with other new varieties 
that have been introduced within the past 5 years. If you were comparing several 
makes of motor cars, you would not compare a 1936 model of one make with a 193 0 
model of another make; that would not be a fair comparison. Neither is it fair to 
make such comparisons with new Glads now coming on the market. Let us take 
Picardy; as I said last year this is one of the truly outstanding varieties of the age. 
Why? Because it seems to be nearly 100% on all counts, health, color, propagation, 
and a score of other important qualities. It became so popular that naturally it 
carries many of its lesser sister varieties on its wave of popularity. To show you 
that this is not my claim alone, I am going to quote you part of an article that is 
published in the November 1935 Bulletin of the Empire State Gladiolus Society, Inc., 
Vol. 2, Number 10, page 12, under the title “TRY THESE” which consists of over two 
solid pages of the review of most of the new, highly rated Glads of the day. We 
quote the writer, (a nationally known Glad fan.) “I might finish with this general 
statement,— Since Picardy, there has been no really number one Gladiolus placed on 
the market. We are all looking every way and testing and trying dozens of new 
ones, but we are still waiting.”—End of quote from Bulletin. 
We have grown Palmer’s Champlain since its introduction and we have little 
more stock than we started with. This variety is so slow a propagator, for the 
average grower in the east who does not have irrigation or other special propagation 
facilities that his investment is likely to result adversely. A slow propagator, and 
poor do-er under adverse conditions. But listen to what a well known western 
grower has to say. Of course he has the very special conditions required to get maxi¬ 
mum increase on even the slowest propagator. We quote from his fall catalog, 
“CHAMPLAIN is what we wanted Heavenly Blue to be, and then some. It’s similar 
but much larger and what’s very important, this variety produces clean, healthy 
bulbs that don’t go bad in storage by the next planting season.—End of quote. Our 
experience has been just the opposite from the experience of this irrigation grower’s 
experience. It is true that Heavenly Blue is subject to storage rot, even under good 
average storage conditions, you are likely to lose some of your bulbs from this 
cause, but on the other hand, Heavenly Blue is one of the most rapid propagators, 
its bulblets grow as vigorous as the best, and flower freely for us. It propagates so 
fast for us that we could afford to throw one half of the stock away each season and 
it would still be a rapid propagator compared to Champlain as one of the slowest 
and a poor do-er under adverse conditions. While it is true that Champlain is not 
