Protection Against Losses 
Commercial growers must watch out for midge 
on Mums, mite on Cyclamen, mildew and aphids 
on roses. Gladioli, particularly in greenhouses, 
need also to be watched for thrips. We may 
just as well face the fact and prepare in time to 
meet and master the enemy. Or, better yet, fore¬ 
stall its attack. A producer of bulbs (Gladiolus 
grower) may have an ever so clean place, his 
stock may have been husked and fumigated, and 
yet the thrips were able to attack and maim the 
flowers in his customer's greenhouse, 4 months 
later. Evidently, the producer thought he had no 
thrip, the greenhouse man thought he had none, 
but they were mistaken. The reason is that thrip 
eggs are very tiny and hard to kill, and that 
thrips live on many more plants than Glads. The 
presence of Glads, however, seems to be to them 
“a table, spread in the wilderness” and if not con¬ 
trolled early, they multiply at a sickening rate. 
The control or “kill” is rather simple. A thorough 
spraying when the “swords” or leaves are 10-12 
inches high, and another one when the plants are 
about to push up buds, will safeguard the crop of 
flowers. An additional spraying, when the first 
florets are about to open, is optional. But the 
first and second spray are the most vital. If you 
see no thrip, don't be fooled, spray just the same, 
to keep the unseen ones from becoming visible. 
The spray is: 
1 rounded tablespoon Paris Green 
2 pounds Brown sugar 
3 gallons of water. 
There is no excuse if any florist allows midge, 
miller, mite or mildew to rob him of the fruit of 
his labor and investment. Neither is there any 
longer any excuse to allow thrips to maim one’s 
Gladioli in the greenhouse, nor, for that matter, 
in the field. It is plain negligence from now on, 
if that happens. For the proper use of a cheap 
spray safeguards the crop. 
Just the same, every buyer of Gladioli bulbs 
should make sure as much as he can, that he re¬ 
ceives reasonably clean stocks, by buying from 
well-known reliable growers, actual growers, whose 
fields can be visited and inspected. 
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