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I JOE COLEMAN 
I It is with deep sorrow that I record the tragic death of Joe Coleman, at the age 
of sixty-one, who was drowned with his wife when their automobile skidded on a 
,i wet narrow bridge in Bradenton, Florida on October 24 last year. 
i. My friendship with joe originated about fifteen years ago when he was located 
in Georgia. I found him, with his wife and daughter Catherine, located on the out- 
1 skirts of Savannah growing glads, as well as other flowers, for the market on a place 
I that seemed ideal. He had selected Savannah in his search for a warmer climate 
I where he could set gladiolus seed more easily than in Ohio and moved there expect- 
f ing to carry on his hybridizing. His first growing season was the driest Georgia ever 
= had and as he had no irrigation his planting dried up and was a total loss. He lost all 
I the stock of several seedlings that he felt were very outstanding and the large crop 
I of seed from the previous year that he had brought from Ohio. It was a severe set- 
i back for him to see the hybridizing of years wiped out in a single season. However, 
I he went ahead giving his entire time to getting a good crop of seed the next season 
I but as the blooming season advanced he found seed did not set and, in spite of the 
= fact that before he decided to locate at Savannah his investigations found seed set- 
I ting very easily on all other kinds of flowers, he was never able to set gladiolus seed 
j satisfactorily in that location. 
j A few years later he went to Florida each winter to help in growing glads for 
the northern winter market, moving permanently to Bradenton in 1936. 
The sixteen originations of joe Coleman were certainly small in number but 
almost every one of them were eventually grown in large numbers. He often said, 
J in talking of introducing seedlings, that the difficult decision was on the pretty ones 
I just not quite good enough to introduce for when there was one really good enough 
i there was no doubt in anyone’s mind. 
i To those growing gladiolus fifteen or twenty years ago the names of some of his 
j originations, aside from those still popular, will bring back pleasant memories, such 
I as: Arbutus, California, Croesus, Fontaine, Cay Nore, Leota, Nautilus, Sharonrose, 
i Sheila, Superba and Sweet Lavender. Today, after almost twenty years have passed, 
I the varieties: Catherine, Coleman, Giant Nymph, Mrs. P. W. Sisson and Minuet are 
I still popular. Minuet I believe has proven it is one of the greatest gladiolus origina- 
i tions ever introduced as no other variety originated twenty years ago can be found 
I anywhere near the top in a present day symposium. This great variety surely will 
I stand long as a memorial to joe Coleman. 
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