WHICH VARIETIES TO GROW 
If you are a real glad fan you don’t need to be told which varieties to grow 
as you will buy all that your pocketbook will afford. This goes without saying as 
a real enthusiastic glad fan always wants to try out the new kinds and get as many 
as possible. 
The beginner who doesn’t know one variety from another and is not interested 
in keeping the varieties separate but just wants the very best collection of blooms 
for his garden that he can get should buy the unlabeled collections. These are 
strictly topnotch and contain mostly the same varieties as listed in the catalog 
but are not labeled as to varieties. There is one disadvantage in buying these 
collections: if you should get the “bug” and want to keep varieties separate you 
will find some varieties in these unlabeled collections that you will not know the 
name of and there will be no way to identify them. We sell thousands of these 
collections every year and they give my customers a great deal of satisfaction. 
There is positively nothing better to be had on the market than these unlabeled 
collections. 
If you are interested enough in glads to want to keep the varieties separate 
and want to select the best varieties that you think will suit you it is difficult to 
select from the catalog as there are so many varieties that it bewilders the beginner. 
And there isn’t much I can do to help you further than I am doing in this catalog. 
Many people think that my descriptions are written just to sell bulbs and are not 
my real opinions. I wish to correct this impression. I make my descriptions 
just as accurate as I possibly can without going into the fine details and I rate the 
various varieties by stars. I do not recommend a variety if I do not think it is 
good. If you are not acquainted with the varieties but want to pick out the best 
ones you can you may safely rely upon my descriptions and judgment. However 
I wish to say that tastes differ very widely and the varieties do not grow or act the 
same under all conditions so I cannot guarantee that you will like any particular 
variety. The only thing to do to work up a fine collection to suit yourself is through 
a process of buying and discarding. 
Of course the ideal way is to visit the gladiolus gardens in the summertime 
and select the ones that you like but where you can’t do that select them from the 
catalog and be guided by the descriptions and the prices that you can pay. 
For Exhibition 
If you are not growing especially for blooms for your own enjoyment but do 
want to enter them in the shows select the varieties that are the largest and have 
the most blooms open. I might say that Picardy is probably the finest exhibition 
variety in existence. But of course that is only one color. In other colors select 
the ones which from the description you judge to be the best. Many people write 
me for the names of varieties that are equal to Picardy but in other colors. There 
are very few to be had as yet. Star of Bethlehem compares with Picardy in size 
and number open as does Miss New Zealand, Takina, Sensation but there are not 
many more. There are no yellows or blues to compare with Picardy in size. 
Cut Flower Growers 
If you are growing for shipment to the large markets you need only a few 
varieties. The llorists in the large cities get used to buying just a few varieties 
and are rather skeptical about other kinds. Picardy is by far the most popular 
though many growers are coming to prefer Debonair as a long distance shipper. I 
have mentioned in my descriptions the few varieties that are especially good and 
which the llorists in the large cities will take. 
There is a big demand for the very early varieties and also for the good late 
ones. Always in the middle of the season in the large markets there is a surplus 
of stock and at that time the demand is not so good but if you can get them in 
early and late there is more profit in it. 
If you are catering to the smaller markets or can sell direct to florists you 
can use many more varieties than the large markets will take. Often you can get 
a florist to try out many new varieties if you can contact him personally. The 
public will certainly take a much greater variety than the average florist will stock 
up with. And if the florists only realized it they could create a much greater demand 
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