How To Grow Fine Spikes Of Gladiolus 
When your bulbs arrive and you are not ready to plant, open the bags 
to admit air, and store them in a cool place until planting time. 
Early planting is usually best, your glads will bloom before the hot 
weather arrives. 
If you did not prepare the bed the previous fall by spading rough and 
coating with 3 to 5 inches of old rotten cow manure, this to be spaded in 
deeply in the spring, then you should prepare the bed now. 
FIRST — Select a place as far from buildings and large trees as you 
can. The better you prepare the bed the better your results will be. Spade 
deep and use plenty old rotten cow manure if you can get it, otherwise use 
a 2001 grade of complete artificial fertilizer, such as Vigoro. Dig a trench 
about 7 inches deep, and apply a heavy dusting of fertilizer in the bottom of 
the trench, cover this with 2 inches of good soil and plant your bulbs on top 
of this, then cover with the remaining ground. This will put the bulbs 5 
inches below the LEVEL. See that no fertilizer touches the bulbs. 
You can plant your bulbs clos? together if you must, but bulbs planted 7 
to 10 inches apart in the trench will produce much bigger plants and 
flowers. The glaciolus needs root room fo produce exhibition spikes. 
After planting, the bulbs won’t need much extra watering for some time, 
this forces them to send their roots down deep into the rich mellow earth, 
but when the flower spikes start showing, you absolutely MUST keep the 
ground moist deep down. A mere sprinkling each night will do no good: in 
fact is harmful, as this draws the roots to the surface where thev are 
damaged by the hot surface ground. After the flower spikes start showing, 
soak your glads down twice each week and Keep this up until you cut the 
spike. 
When the first blooms open, cut the spikes in the morning( leaving at 
least 4 leaves on the plant to develop the bulb next year.) 
Place the cut spike in water in your cool basement, and leave until the 
following morning. You will be surprised to see how the spike developed. 
Your spike is now in its prime for vasing. The gladiolus is primarily a cut 
flower. Don’t leave these lovely flowers out in the wind and sun to be 
damaged. Enjoy them indoors. 
THRIP.—Fortunately we have not been troubled with thrip here, but in 
many localities thrip has discouraged many a glad fan unzvil they found the 
remedy. 
ENTIDSis amliIn VallseCh, ine aCiileIs asmeresspeck.. Chey suck the lite 
juice from the tencer flow2r spike even before it emerges. The result isa 
poor spilte, if any. Thrip are about 1 /25th of an inch long, have wing”, and 
carried around by the wind, on clothing, etc. They increase tremedously 
fast, and if only a few adult thrip are present in the spring, they will in- 
crease to millions by August. Even if you plant thrip free kFulhs, ven mil) 
likely get them from your neighbors if their plants have thrip, because 
thrip are carried around. 
HOWEVER THERE IS AN EASY REMEDY. Fortunately in our cold cli- 
mate thrip cannot easily overwinter outdoors, the danger lies in thrip over- 
wintering the bulbs. Therefore EVERY GLAD BULB SHOULD BE DISIN- 
FECTED before planting, no matter if you had them on hand or just bought 
them. We use BICHLORIDE OF MERCURY, 1 oz. dissolved in 7 gallons of 
water. We place each variety in a cloth sack, labeled, and soak the bulbs 12 
to 18 hours. The solution should be Kept at 60 degrees or over. We plant the 
bulbs while still wet, if possible. This dip kills all thrip and their eggs and 
also certain bacteria that might be present. Now your bulbs are in good 
shape, but you will have to see to it that your neighbors all around also clean 
up their bulbs otherwise as stated above they will spread the thrip around 
to your plants again. Therefore get all the neighbors who have bulbs to 
bring them together and disinfect them. Have a community dip for glad 
bulbs. BICHLORIDE OF MERCURY IS POISON. Use wood or crock con- 
tainer, never a metal one. | 
BI 
