CULTIVATION 
Your success depends more on the culti- 
vatl'on you give your glads than on most any¬ 
thing else you can do. Do not wait until you 
can see the weeds. A common garden rake 
is perhaps the best cultivator for a small 
planting in the garden if it is used often 
enough to keep the soil loose and fine. You 
will be well repaid for the extra care you give 
your glads during the blooming season. 
If you hill up the rows two or three inches 
when they are a foot or more high, it will 
help to hold the spi kes in an upright position 
when they bloom. 
Cultivation should be continued once a 
week until after the blooming season, and 
also as soon after each '*ain as the soil wilt 
permit. This destroys the weeds when the 
seeds are germinating and creates a dust 
mulch to conserve the moisture. 
CUTTING 
If the spike is cut when the first flower is 
fully open it will bloom Pn the vase for a week 
or longer if the weather is cool. Each morn¬ 
ing the water should be changed, the with- 
ered blooms removed, and an inch or more 
cut from the base of the suike. They usually 
bloom better in the vase than in the hot sun 
and wfnd in the garden. 
Cutting the spike off will not harm the new 
bulb for the next season if you are carefu' 
to not remove any more of the foliage than 
necessary. The more foliage you can lea\o- 
the better the new bulb and bulbets wiU 
develop. The formation of seeds retards tho 
growth of the bulb. The tops should he cut 
off above the foliage when they are done 
blooming Pn the garden. We growers who 
pride ourselves on growing high quality bulbs 
cut out many of the tops before blooming. 
