GUIDEBOOK FOR 1938 
Page 5 
"May I join your happy familyl I knew nothing about 
raising or caring for 'glads' but my wife said I had to 
learn. Have received your 'Guide Book' and feel that 
you have started me out right. Enclosing check for bulb 
order and to cover society memberships as follows” etc. 
2-19-37. P. L. LaB., Pittsburgh, Pa. 
“This small order is merely to offer thanks for a very 
informative and enjoyable catalog and to advise you 
against keeping my name on your list.” 3-3-37. Mrs. 
H. C. Athens, Pa. 
“Let me congratulate you on the wonderful catalog you 
put out. I file, each one as I consider each as truly a 
Guide Book.” 9-6-'37. I. L. J., Sydney, N. S. W. 
WE VISIT THE SHOWS 
During the past summer we visited about 
all the shows we could, considering time and 
distance, nine gladiolus shows, the Toronto 
Fair, where Leonard W. Butt, of Highland 
Creek, Ont., had a fine commercial display 
of glads, winning first honors. We also at¬ 
tended three dahlia shows and made a com¬ 
mercial exhibit at the Ohio Dahlia Soc. show 
at Cleveland, exhibiting glads at the Dahlia 
Soc. request. We “covered” the glad shows 
of Ohio, Ind., Mich., Pa., N. Y. and the 
Canadian National at Midland, Ont. 
The Canadian show was the most interest¬ 
ing to us because we had never visited their 
show before. The hall was suitable and 
spacious, the growers and amateurs were out 
in force with blooms at least a little better 
average quality than the best of the other 
eight glad shows visited. Mr. Palmer, of 
Picardy fame, was there with his usual array 
of fine seedlings but several others had seed¬ 
lings of equal quality. 
As we were about to make this trip, we 
fortunately secured the permission of Mrs. 
J. Sherwin, one of our nearby good customers 
who for several years has helped enhance the 
Ohio and A.G.S. shows with her excellently 
produced blooms, to take her Gardener, Carl 
Higginbotham, with us,. And such of her 
blooms as were then available, of course. 
We took some samples of our own, too, mostly 
newer sorts or sorts not commonly grown in 
Canada. We made a small, non-competitive, 
labeled display of these. Mr. Higginbotham 
had his usual, stunning spikes and entered 
them in the 3 spike, open to all division, 
winning 8 firsts, 5 seconds, 6 thirds and one 
of his spikes of Rosemarie Pfitzer was judged 
the Champion Bloom of the Show. His 3 
spikes of Picardy won by a very marked 
margin, as did his vase of 10 spikes of the 
same variety. 
“To many Canadians, it was a revelation to see the 
perfection to which certain varieties, which are not seen 
at their best here, can be grown in Ohio.” {From Presi¬ 
dent's Message, C.G.S. Oct. '37 Quarterly, speaking of 
Mrs. Sherwin's and our blooms.) 
Dear Mr. Evans: Guelph, Ontario, Oct. 9, '37. 
“It is with great pleasure that I write to advise 
you that the Coronation Year O.H.A. Award, which is 
given to our Society by the Horticultural Council to be 
awarded for some outstanding feature in the year's work 
has been awarded to you by our Board of Directors as 
a token of appreciation for what you have done for our 
Society. Very truly yours, L. M. Carleton, Secretary, 
Canadian Gladiolus Society.” 
At the A.G.S. show, South Bend, Ind., we 
produced the first U. S. blue ribbon back¬ 
ground for Allegro and Green Light, two new 
beauties from Pfitzer. 
At the Ohio show Mrs. Sherwin’s blooms 
piled up an unapproachable number of points. 
At this show, out of 17 possible awards, our 
seedlings secured every ribbon except one 
red and our seedling, since named “Icelander”, 
was the Grand Champion Seedling bloom. 
Icelander has very large, round florets of 
white, with a creamy throat heavily dotted 
with strong blue violet, an interesting and 
unusual combination. The spike had 8)^ 
florets open, with placement absolutely per¬ 
fect-one of the largest flowerheads in the 
show. 
SIZE OF BULB TO BUY 
If economy be the aim, do not rely on small 
bulbs to give wholly satisfactory blooms. 
The small bulbs will all bloom but medium 
bulbs almost always give far better than 
“medium” sized spikes of the given variety. 
Our descriptions usually indicate whether or 
not the variety is an exceptionally fine pro¬ 
ducer of blooms from the smaller sizes. 
A number of varieties either have come 
into sufficient world production to warrant 
low price for large bulbs or bloom so un¬ 
satisfactorily from medium size bulbs that, 
for the protection of our customer, we omit 
the smaller sizes from our pricing. Likely, 
we have them if you insist but we recommend 
only the sizes offered. 
In general, many catalogers who offer bulbs 
graded L, M and S, rather than in sizes 1 to 
6, supply number 2, 4 and 6. In most loca¬ 
tions, the grower catalogers do not obtain 
many number 1 bulbs first year from small 
bulbs. In many other locations few bulbs 
reach heavy number 1 size until grown the 
second time from a number 2. A number 2 
grades from 134 to 134 inches dia. A large 
percentage of number 1 bulbs sold grade 
only 34 inch larger. If over 1^ inch, a large 
percentage of them offered have large base 
scars showing separation from an already 
old bulb. Approximately, a number 1 bulb 
is twice as heavy as a number 2. Likewise, 
a jumbo oversize number 1 is approximately 
twice as heavy as the regulation number one, 
therefore, usually four times as heavy as the 
regulation “L” bulb. 
Due to our offering only superior varieties, 
you may depend on securing superior blooms 
from our L bulbs, whether they be number 
1 or number 2 L. Numberless prizes have 
been won by them in the hands of our cus¬ 
tomers. 
“I saw your wonderful display of immense blooms in 
the middle of October at the Great Lakes Exposition and 
wrote down the names of those I liked best. I have been 
very anxiously awaiting your catalog so that I could 
place my order.” 2-8- 37. E. V. T. Ft. Defiance, Va. 
