6 
A. E. KUNDERD , GOSHEN , INDIANA. 
Well do I remember as if it were yesterday when as a Hoosier boy 
of a dozen years, some forty years ago, my eyes for the first time met 
the sight of a well-grown spike of the old scarlet variety of “Brench- 
leyensis.” It was on a beautiful Sunday evening just after a rain when 
a neighbor boy came across the fields wearing a spike of this variety 
pinned across his coat lapel. It was the most beautiful flower I had 
ever seen and “as vivid as a flame.” This event was the introduction 
to a life’s labor and formed the nucleus of what has now become the 
most wonderful of all Gladiolus. 
When the following springtime came I managed to secure a few 
bulbs from the neighbor across the field, and since then my enthusiasm 
has never waned. Each following year I added as many new kinds as 
possible. Every available penny was invested and everything else was 
made subservient to “the cause.” Some years later M. Lemoine, of 
Nancy, France, introduced his beautiful “Butterfly” varieties, and soon 
after the large flowered “Nanceianus.” A little later the famous 
“Childsii” were offered, and about 1900 the wonderful Groff Hybrids. 
From all of these and other strains the finest were secured and all 
their best qualities bred into my collection. Vast numbers of new 
seedlings were produced and many selections and recombinations of 
the best were made (and an occasional infusion of the most desirable 
species was incorporated and tried out). The results were combined 
with certain species which I had learned from experiments would pro¬ 
duce a tendency to develop the ruffled forms. This labor was continued 
for years and when the ruffled type was fully established further selec¬ 
tions were continued for vigor, variety and beauty of forms and colors, 
until now they are equaled by no other race of Gladiolus in existence. 
Their introduction came as a surprise to the floral world, as no 
one else had a vision of such flowers, or at least had never produced 
them. Luther Burbank and many other famous men and women have 
given them their highest praise and some of their letters are herein given. 
Gladiolus growers everywhere have eagerly sought my new introductions 
each year for use in their crosses and are also producing new ruffled 
seedlings, but all of them show the same characteristics of mine, differ¬ 
ing only in tints of color, as all varieties do, showing clearly their 
ancestral parentage. With a knowledge gained from an experience of 
many years, and the secret of the origin of The Ruffled Gladiolus, and 
a resultant collection of vast extent, my friends can be certain of being 
able in the future to secure from me results unequalled by any other 
grower in the world, regardless of prices. In an article by Matthew 
Crawford, in the “Cuyahoga Falls (Ohio) Reporter,” March 10, 1910, 
the then already large extent of my collection of ruffled varieties is 
shown, and extracts from other sources are also quoted. Millions of 
seedlings from careful crosses of these ruffled strains have been bloomed 
on my grounds, and selections and re-selections from them have been 
continued for upwards of twenty years until our collection is beyond 
comparison with that of any other grower in the world. Today over 
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