A GLADIOLUS FANCIER'S CATALOG 
39 
over spike straightening up. Such a crook 
is ideal and may be had in any variety. 
So when the wind blows over a few spikes 
of your glads, be grateful for the accident! 
WITH FOUR BOTTOM SPIKES ADDED 
If your garden is extremely sheltered, one 
could doubtless easily cultivate a few 
crooks oneself. . . . Except for a blank area 
in the center the basket is now practically 
complete. (Incidentally, if these four 
spikes crook insufficiently to make it pos¬ 
sible to stick the stems into the Kenzans, 
they may be held in place by wiring them 
to the edge of the basket. No wires will 
show when the basket is completed.) 
5. With the center spikes added: 
A vase of flowers is itself a picture (as well as 
part of a larger picture: the wall, or room)—and as 
a picture it must have a center of interest. To avoid 
the obvious this should be slightly to one side of 
the center. Choosing the lower right center as the 
point of interest, we carefully fit three spikes (cut 
so that little stem remains below the flowerhead) 
into position so that the color runs way down into 
the heart of the bouquet. Indeed here the color 
must be most intense and from here must seem 
to emanate. In reality we have built the bouquet 
backward. 
6. Addition of Foliage: 
The basket is now essentially complete except 
for a certain bareness. To soften the outlines and 
lend a lacy effect we add a few sprays of huckle¬ 
berry (a flat leaved evergreen obtainable from 
florits for about 75c a bunch—enough for two large 
baskets). First place the huckleberry all around 
the back of the bouquet as sort of a collar fitting it 
in especially between the spikes. (Use sparsely, of 
course, as we are after a light, airy effect). Then 
work in a very few sprays among the spikes them¬ 
selves. 
Nothing makes an easier mixer for glads than 
huckleberry. But many other things may be used. 
The perennial aster Queen Mary which is unique 
among the Michaelmas daisies in the long sprays 
it produces (see page 20) is probably the most 
beautiful mixer of any to combine with glads.^ 
Wild baby's breath native over much of North 
America (see page 2) is also excellent, but ordi¬ 
narily should be used only with pastel glads or 
glads containing some white. Many other types of 
foliage or other flowers may be combined with 
glads to great advantage. Gladiolus foliage itself 
is fine, though suggesting in its spiky effect a more 
modernistic type of bouquet than the one we have 
used for our illustration. 
7. Finishing Touches: 
Though the basket arrangement is now theo¬ 
retically complete^ a critical eye will discover many 
little finishing touches—a spike that needs a slight 
turning to one side lest it be too much concealed, a 
spike that needs to be lowered an inch to bring a 
more solid coloring into the center of the bouquet, 
rarely a tip that needs to be shortened by the re¬ 
moval of two or three buds, or even a single floret 
that needs adjusting. Every spike, every floret, 
every leaf, must be in perfect harmony, the color 
rippling lightly up each stem must flame from a 
single source. Exuberant, upsurging LIFE, the very 
basis of beauty, must throb through the rhythm of 
form, glow in the richness and purity of color. 
All these directions may seem a bit complicated, 
but they are simple enough when once tried out, 
and add immensely to the pleasure to be derived 
from the use of glads in the home. 
WITH CENTER SPIKES ADDED 
• Since offering plants of the Queen Mary aster as a premium a couple of years ago, we have had several follow-up requests for it. If 
any customer who did not receive it then, wishes to get started with this beautiful perennial we will send a plant or two if 25c is added 
to your bulb order. Separate shipment in May only. l i- j ■ u u u 
* If the bouquet is to be viewed from more than one side, additional spikes of course must be fitted into the back. 
