Page 8 
THE GLADIOLUS FANCIER’S 
later about our 3 spike light pink seedling 
(7356) entry, since named “Stella Antis- 
dale”—which won 9 separate awards on this 
one entry, including Champion Seedling, the 
American Home Achievement Medal, the 
sterling silver Stella Antisdale Seedling 
Trophy, Award of Merit and Grand Cham¬ 
pion Bloom of the Show. Most ruffled with 
Frostpink. Nearest blue with Tehema. 
Best base, 12 spikes orange with Mrs. H. B. 
Ambler. Several of our seedlings earned 
their Ohio society Award of Merit as well as 
Stella Antisdale—our small dec. seedling 62922 
now named “Sub Deb’’, our 83553 (also 3 
spike seedling winner at Ind., ’38 and pic¬ 
tured in the deluxe edition of the N.E.G.S. 
1939 yearbook opposite page 120) and 63447, 
the ruffled novelty now named “Pinocchio.’’ 
We took our Reserve champ spike of King 
of Hearts home with us after the close of the 
Ohio show at midnight, Sunday, and we cut 
several cans of blooms by flashlight (entirely 
forgetting Peggy Lou!) and started out at 
once in time to see the last day of the Empire 
state society show at the state fair at Syra¬ 
cuse. Here, as last year, we again filled a 
large table with samples of recent introduc¬ 
tions and a number of imported varieties not 
yet released. And our spike of King of 
Hearts, still with its lower floret intact, had 
eight open florets averaging 7 inches diameter, 
in perfect condition. The fair officials held 
over our exhibit for several more days of the 
fair. 
Later we exhibited at the Mahoning 
society (2nd show, Youngstown) where our 
Pacemaker was Grand Champion. 
Late in September we exhibited (gladiolus) 
at the Mid West Dahlia show at Cleveland. 
CANDID COMPARISONS 
(at random) 
Extensive betterments have come to the 
aid of some weak color classes, particularly to 
light colors with pronounced blotch, now 
remedied by the inclusion of Margaret 
Beaton, June Bride, Helen of Troy, Sir 
Galahad, New Zealand Splendor and Candy- 
heart; to light pink substantially unmarked, 
by Greta Garbo, Pacemaker and Stella Antis¬ 
dale; to light rose by Rosa Van Lima, Ex¬ 
quisite and Changeable Silk; to deep rose by 
Harmau; to yellow by Golden Galleon; Sir 
Galahad and Jim Holland; to orange by 
Treasury Gold, Pinocchio and Dazzler. 
Do you like long, stretchy flowerheads? 
Here they are, 30 inches or better; Peggy 
Lou, Picardy, June Bride, Exquisite, St. 
Edward, Treasury Gold, King of Hearts, 
The longest of these. Treasury Gold. 
With the new giants King of Hearts and 
Treasury Gold joining Peggy Lou in its 
attack on Picardy for possible grand champion 
honors, this is going to be a spectacular 
contest. 
Let us consider the bulk of bloom on a 
given flowerhead. Say 4 inches diameter and 
up. Plenty of 4 inch glads. Can it be possible 
that of two spikes with equal number of 
open florets, one can have twice the bulk of 
bloom of the other? Yes, you can imagine 
that to be possible. But, four times the bulk 
of bloom? No, impossible you say. Perhaps 
you counter—A floret just twice the diameter 
of another couldn’t be four times as big. 
But you are wrong. Let us compare 2 
spikes, one with five open 4 inch florets, the 
other with five open 8 inch florets. Here 
are the cold facts: 
Diameter 4 inches, area 12.57 square inches. 
5 inches 19.64 
6 inches 28.27 
7 inches 38.50 
8 inches 50.27 
So figure it out for yourself. What’s more, 
a spike with only two open 8 inch florets has 
as great a bulk of bloom as one with eight 
open 4 inch florets! 
Therefore, let us particularly call your 
attention to our “Key’’ (see page 13) use of 
star * in our variety description to denote 
size of floret. These are the giants of Glad- 
dom: Merry Widow, King of Hearts, 
Crystal, Miss New Zealand, Takina, Tunia’s 
Triumph, Walk Over, California and Helen 
of Troy. Close on their heels and at times 
making even bigger flowerheads by holding 
more open, come Peggy Lou, New Zealand 
Splendor, Treasury Gold, Aladdin, Hinden- 
burg’s Memory, Picardy and others. 
Beauty of color harmony. All see this 
more or less differently. Particularly with 
odd colors as in Vagabond Prince and 
Gertrude Swenson. But we would be 
thoroughly surprised if a single person could 
fail to enthuse over the color of Treasury 
Gold, New Zealand Splendor, King of Hearts, 
Margaret Beaton, Sir Galahad, Changeable 
Silk, Dazzler, Pinocchio, Manawatu or Rosa 
Van Lima. Nor is this a complete list of the 
beauties by any means. 
Cut flower growers are keen to buy varieties 
of which economically purchased number 
4 medium bulbs make saleable spikes while 
being grown into large bulbs. Among the 
very best performers we have in mind par¬ 
ticularly Peggy Lou, Rosa Van Lima, Harmau, 
Black Opal, Margaret Beaton, Stella Antis¬ 
dale, Aladdin, Raysheen, Walk Over, Vela, 
Rosemarie Pfitzer, Mary Elizaberh, Vaga¬ 
bond Prince and Jersey Cream. These are 
our star performers from medium bulbs, all 
doing relatively fine from small bulbs, as well. 
