Propagating the Gladiolus 
HOW YOU MAY SECURE HUNDREDS OF FLOWERING BULBS FOR YOUR GARDEN 
WITH THE EXPENDITURE OF A LITTLE TIME, SPACE, AND PERHAPS A DOLLAR 
by Royden E. Tull 
T HAT the Gladiolus is one of the most beautiful of our summer¬ 
flowering bulbs every one knows, producing for us, as it does, 
every variety of shade and color combination. What few realize 
is the fact that Gladioli can be propagated as easily as the potato, 
and with no more trouble in the matter of winter storage. 
The writer had not been able to have 
all of these bulbs he wished until recently, 
for with the coming of every spring there 
were always so many things in the way 
of fruits, vegetables, shrubs, etc., he 
thought he must have, that the money 
he had allotted to the garden was ex¬ 
hausted before the matter of having any 
left for the Gladioli was thought of. That 
is all changed now, and he finds he can 
have his garden full of Gladioli, after all, 
at comparatively little expense, with a 
little work and a little patience. This is 
the way it is accomplished: 
Some of the seedsmen offer for sale 
at about one dollar per thousand the 
little one-year-old bulblets that need 
another season’s growth to produce 
mature flowering corms. One thousand 
of such bulblets will produce from seven 
to nine hundred mature flowering bulbs. 
If you have not been able to save all 
of the little bulbs you think you will 
need by a method described later in this 
article, order your additional supply from 
your seedsman early in February, and 
instruct him to ship these bulblets to you 
as soon as danger from frost is past. Do 
this with all your seeds, plants, and bulbs 
and the resulting increase in both the 
quantity and quality of the goods you 
get will be a revelation in prolific results. 
Most persons wait till the rush of planting 
time comes before they order, and then cannot understand why 
some things have been damaged in packing or shipping. 
As early in spring as the ground can be worked nicely, and as 
soon as all danger from a heavy frost is past, prepare your seed¬ 
bed as you would prepare it for onion sets. Your infant Gladioli 
should be set out just as you would onion sets except that the 
rows must be from eighteen to twenty-four inches apart, and that 
the bulbs must be placed at least two inches deep, and not more 
than half an inch apart in the row. Tend them carefully all 
summer, keeping all the weeds out. 
After the first heavy frost in the fall take up your bulbs and 
put them in trays to dry, leaving the tops on until they are thor¬ 
oughly dried, when they should be cut off about one inch above 
the bulb. Next sack them carefully, using a Number 3 or a 
Number 4 paper bag (such as those in which sugar comes from 
the grocer’s), and putting two or three dozen bulbs in each bag. 
Tie the neck of the bags tightly, leaving a surplus of cord from 
which a loop should be made by which the bag is suspended from 
a nail in the rafters of the vegetable cellar. There they are to be 
left until spring. Great care must be taken during these latter 
stages to prevent bruising; every bruise means a rotted bulb in 
consequence. 
It is at the base of these larger bulbs that the bulblets grow. 
A two-year-old bulb has clustering around it a large number of 
the smaller ones, sometimes from thirty-five to fifty. If you 
have grown Galdioli previously it will not be necessary for you 
to buy the small bulbs as you may save those adhering to the 
bulbs which have flowered the last season. 
Remove the bulblets, place in separate 
trays, and as soon as they are dry store 
them just as you did the larger ones 
except that two or three hundred are put 
in each bag. It is not advisable to put 
a larger number in a bag as they are apt 
to pack and heat, thus losing their vital¬ 
ity. Care and patience are necessary if 
you would save all of these little bulbs 
at harvest time on account of their small 
size and the fact that they do not adhere 
to the parent bulb very firmly. 
By this method, of course only 
existing varieties may be perpetuated. 
If one desires to carry his experiments 
farther afield and into the fascinating 
realm of hybridization, he may buy seeds 
from the seedsmen or may carry pollen 
from one plant to another in his own 
garden by means of a camel’s hair or red 
sable brush. It will, however, be neces¬ 
sary to wait an additional year for blos¬ 
soms from seed. 
After the seed has been secured, and 
about the early part of March, prepare 
flats as you would for any other delicate 
seedling. Plant the seed in rows, cover 
with about one-sixteenth of an inch of 
potting soil. Then cover each flat with 
a pane of glass until germination has 
taken place, after which remove the 
glass and place the flats in the full sun¬ 
light, taking care, however, to keep the temperature at about 
70° during the day and 55 0 at night. 
When the second pair of leaves appears, prick out into the 
greenhouse bench or coldframe and transplant to nursery rows 
as soon as conditions out-of-doors are favorable. 
In the fall treat the seedlings as you did the bulblets, planting 
them in nursery rows the second season. They will flower the 
third season and may be set out in your regular beds at that time 
unless you object to an indiscriminate riot of color in contrasting 
shades. In that case plant again in nursery rows and label each 
bulb as it blooms. 
A good way to do this is to group the crimsons, scarlets, pinks, 
etc., numbering the different groups “ 1 ”, “2”, “3”, etc.,putting 
a label with the number of the group to which it belongs opposite 
each bulb. In the fall they can be placed in bags and the bags 
numbered to correspond. Of course any especially desirable 
bulb may have a distinctive mark and name and kept separate. 
The Gladiolus is one of the most useful perennials for fine 
color effects. You may have the Salem for salmon pink the 
Augusta for pure white, the Madame Monneret for delicate rose, 
the Nezinscott for bright scarlet, the Sellew for crimson, the 
Canary Bird for yellow, and so on through almost every shade. 
The Gladiolus will give you the greatest variety 
of color among bulbs. Home propagation 
will secure for you hundreds of blooms 
