Notes of the Past Season 
After a cold April with excessive rain we settled into the season of 1939 with a pro¬ 
longed drought, making it impossible to raise exhibition spikes, or even representative spikes, 
without overhead irrigation. However, having the benefit of the irrigation—except on one 
seedling patch—our blooms were about as usual. 
The early varieties vary very little each year. LI BELLE was the first and never have 
I seen them any finer. Then came POLAR ICE like soldiers. Each day new colors appeared—- 
MISS HARRIET, KRIMHILDE, WHITE ORCHID, ROI SOLEIL, EARLY DAWN, TANGERINE, 
CLADDIE BOY, PELECRINA, JOH. S. BACH, LAUSANNE, MR. CUTHBERTSON and YEL¬ 
LOW PERFECTION, a regular rainbow of early blooming low priced varieties. 
Everyone has a favorite color but we are all equally enthusiastic about white gladiolus 
and this year so many seemed to stand out. Our SURFSIDE was most gratifying to us for 
it is a 100% cutter—even blooms beautifully from bulblets; its texture is heavy and yet 
livened up by the faint cream in the throat; the florets are ruffled and it makes such a 
graceful yet sturdy spike. VREDENBURG, MATTERHORN and SNOW PRINCESS were 
very fine and, being able to see them in quantity for the first time, we were very favorably 
impressed. KRYTBERC, SEPTEMBER WHITE and WHITE TRIUMPHATOR grew tall and 
well and show promise of being very good commercials as their price is somewhat lower. 
Creams and whites with slight throat markings are so popular. MRS. C. C. ERREY 
still tops the list for creams with tall spikes—many open and perfect placement—very lovely. 
Then SHIRLEY TEMPLE—ruffled and husky—but she has got to look to her laurels for, 
MYRNA, also a Pruitt origination, is a lovely ruffled glad—very refined. GREEN LIGHT, 
while quite green in the bud, opens to an interesting greenish cream; this variety was es¬ 
pecially fine this year. P. D. VAN MOURIK is a clear white with a striking wine red blotch 
but most noticeable in this color scheme was ROBERT SHIPPEE—one of our 1940 introduc¬ 
tions—a beautiful heavily ruffled white with alizarine pink (or light old rose throat). In 
New York in 1935 this was awarded a medal for being the most beautiful gladiolus in the 
show and everyone who sees it agrees that it really is different and lovely. 
The yellows seem to cover every shade but we are looking for still better ones. Some, 
not too bright, like: ALCHEMIST, FAHNENJUNKER, ZAUBERIN and YELLOW PERFECTION, 
are more reasonable in price and can be used more generally as commercials. ANNA MAY 
WONG is early and a warm yellow. DESERT GOLD is good. GOLDEN GODDESS and GOLD 
DUST are rich yellows and they look good to us along with YELLOW PERIL. GELBER 
DOMINO is a nice lemon yellow with a darker throat. ROYAL GOLD we do like in every way 
and feel when it is a bit lower in price everyone will want. HEIDELBERGER SCHLOSS is very 
new and we highly approve of it—clear yellow—slightly ruffled and a warmer shade in the 
throat. JASMINE—a lovely yellow, heavily ruffled, didn’t open too many at one time with 
us. Very similar to this glad in growth and habits was RUFFLED BEAUTY—a very light yel¬ 
low, almost a cream. MOONSHINE was another nice lemon yellow with darker throat. There 
are not too many yellows with markings and we still grow and win with ANGKOR, a rich 
yellow with bright crimson blotch-—a true Lemoine type. 
We noticed ALLAN WATT, warm buff with clear yellow throat and garnet feather. 
PARADISE makes a nice long willowy spike but often crooks. Then comes BUFFETTE, one 
of our 1937 introductions and a leader in this color, and winning honors both at the World’s 
Fair and Boston this past season. Everyone should grow it! 
Early in the flowering season we come upon KING’S RANSOM—a rich bright orange 
with yellow throat on which is a faint red feather; this glad is very attractive with its slightly 
ruffled edges. SAARLAND is a warmer silvery orange with distinctive midrib on each petal 
and very pretty—a typical Barth variety. The variety ORANGE itself is a soft color, very 
pretty; and then there is GINGER ROGERS growing straight and tall—a soft colored orange, 
more vivid at the edges with a cream throat on which are slight pencillings of garnet. We 
believe this one has a fine future in store for it. 
