
GROWING HINTS 
You can be reasonably sure of having glad blooms in most any soil or climate or weather. 
If your season is short, plant the early varieties. If your summers turn hot and dry along in 
August, plant them very early, or very late, and you will avoid this period for the blooming. 
In planning your glad season, here are some “don'ts”, 
(1) Don’t plant near trees, or too close to buildings that would shade them. This is very 
important. Some glad enthusiasts say to stay at least 100 feet away from any tree. I would 
say, do not plant at a less distance from a tree than the height of that tree. Glads simply 
will not do well there, or in partial shade. Have you ever seen corn planted too near a 
grove? That's the way it affects glads, only more so. Plant out away from things, where the 
soil moisture and elements for plant growth are preserved for your glads. 
(2) Don’t starve your glads. Plant the bulbs at least three or four inches apart in the 
row. Thick planting lessens the quality of the blooms through lack of sufficient soil food 
and moisture. While glads do well in nearly every soil, they certainly do respond quickly and 
eagerly when the soil is rich. If you use fertilizer, then observe certain precautions. For 
instance, manure should be well rotted, or plowed under the fall before, A balanced com- 
mercial fertilizer should be thoroughly incorporated in the soil, not left too near the bulb. 
In either case, be sure there is plenty of moisture. If you have to supplement natural rainfall, 
then do it thoroughly each time you do it. A little, even if very often, is worse than none at 
all. The little feeder roots go where the moisture is, so do not pull them towards the surface 
by shallow watering. Weeds also starve the glads, so keep them away. Plenty of soil food 
and moisture make for gorgeousness in glads. 
(3) At digging time don’t cure your bulbs by spreading them out in the sun to dry. The 
sun dries them too fast, so that they at once become soft. Of course, they later on become 
solid again, but there is a shock to the bulb, and a lessening of its vitality. Cut off the tops 
close to the bulb as soon as dug, and place in small containers, such as paper bags, and at 
once store in a dry frost-proof place to cure slowly. That is Nature’s way where glads 
originally came from, the wilds of the semi-arid regions of South Africa, where the bulbs stay 
in the ground when the dry season comes on. 
Set the larger bulbs upright when you plant, But the smaller ones need not be. Plant 
three to six inches deep, and as early as you wish in the spring, if the soil is ready to work, 
provided there is no longer danger of frost reaching down to the planted bulbs. 
There are three different ways of prolonging the blooming season by the manner of 
planting: (1) Plant assorted sizes. The smaller bulbs will bloom later than the others. (2) 
Plant tne 1arger bulbs at intervals of about two weeks, up until July for the early varieties, or 
the middle of June for the late varieties, in the latitude of Iowa. (3) Plant late varieties as 
late as you dare, and early varieties as early as you can, and mid-season varieties at intervals. 
Or, use any combination of these three ways. 
Many of my customers have tried my No. 5 size of bulbs, and have expressed surprise and 
pleasure at the fine blooms these 5’s have given them. Where growing conditions are favor- 
able, such as good soil and plenty of moisture, or in conditions similar to Iowa conditions, 
young bulbs, such as 5’s and 4’s that have never bloomed previously for anybody, produce 
spikes good enough for the big flower markets and fine enough for anybody’s garden. How- 
ever, if your season is short, or if your soil is deficient in some respect, or if there are other 
reasons, such as too much shade, better use the larger sizes, at least until you have first ex- 
perimented with the smaller bulbs. It is true that the large bulbs have more stored-up plant 
food with which to start the plant off on its career, a real advantage where your growing 
conditions are not the best. No. 5’s and most No, 4’s are usually grown the first year from 
bulblets, and are therefore lower in price, because of a saving of one year in the time re- 
quired to produce them by the Nurseryman. 
Do not wait until the tops are brown and dead before digging. My glads are always 
green, every last plant of them, when I dig them in October. If there is ever a brown plant, 
there is a suspicion of something wrong with it, and over the fence it goes. Cut off the tops 
as you dig them, and store them where it is dry and frost-proof, and the old bulbs and roots 
can easily be removed in about a month, and the bulblets separated. Don’t forget, freezing 
kills bulbs. 
