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Our Twenty-Fifth Anniversary 
With this our 1944 catalog, we wish to announce our twenty-five vears 
of merchandising horticultural products by mail order. While we have 
handled many products, our leading specialty for about twenty-five years, 
has been the production and distribution of gladiolus bulbs. 
Our mail order nursery business had its inception here at Hamburg about 
28 years ago, as a garden hobby. | trust you will not object to a little review 
of these years to commemorate a quarter of a century of floral service. 
For many years the business was conducted under my own name. _ Six 
years ago, we made the business a partnership, (not Inc.) , and the business 
became known as Hornberger’s Home and Garden Service. However we 
use for general advertising purposes the more abbreviated term of—Horn- 
berger’s Garden Service. We also have a local retail store or Garden Shop, 
in connection with our office and local warehouse. We have another ware- 
house or Bulb Storage at Centertown, Kentucky, where the larger part of 
our commercial bulb crop is produced. Our larger bulb orders are shipped 
direct from Centertown, Kentucky, to our customers, in every part of the 
U.S. A. Here along the picturesque banks of the Green river of Kentucky, 
we grow our ‘High Quality Young Bulbs.’’ Prior to the war we had sent our 
advertising matter and catalogs to some 10 to 12 foreign nations, as well as 
to every state in the union. 
Our 1944 catalog is only one half the size of our 1938 catalog, but we 
have eliminated many varieties, and we have prepared a number of mono- 
graphs, dealing with special subjects which helps us reduce the size of this 
catalog, these monographs are sent free, when requested with your order, 
or we will mail one or all available, for a 3c stamp to cover cost of mailing, 
when you order them sent separately. 
SOME OF OUR BETTER KNOWN GLADIOLUS ORIGINATIONS 
Gladiolus, Mrs. F. C. Hornberger 
Introduced by us about 20 years ago, was often referred to as the “perennial prize 
winner.” At Hartford, Conn., Gladiolus Exhibition, 1926, won as the best spike in the 
show. At Horticultural Hall, Boston, Mass., New England Gladiolus Show, 1927, won the 
Championship Cup as the best three spikes in the show. At Madison Square, New 
York, 1931, won the “Vaughan’s Bronze Medal,’ as the best white gladiolus in the show 
These are merely some of the ‘high lights.’”’ About that same time it was listed in the 
American Gladiolus Society, national symposium as one of the most popular 25 varieties 
grown in the U.S. A. 
The Remarkable Keeping Qualities of Giad. Mrs. F. C. H. 
There is much difference in the keeping qualities of different varieties of flowers. 
When precooled they Keep better than when used without this scientific treatment, how- 
ever we can Keep cut flowers too long in controlled refrigeration, this is true of glads, 
roses and all other perishables. It is also true flowers may be too old when fresh cut. 
Under controlled greenhouse conditions the functional activities of the plants or flowers 
may be “slowed down” the same as when fresh cut and placed in the refrigerator. While 
methods of preserving and Keeping flowers are very important we must remember that 
“keeping quality’’ is an inherent quality with individual varieties of flowers. Some 
varieties of roses that have very exceptional “inherent keeping qualities’ may not be 
good “forcers’’ when grown under greenhouse conditions, while a very ‘profitable’ and 
easy forcer may not have 50 percent of the keeping qualities of the first mentioned. 
This is often the reason why your roses and other flowers do not always give the same 
satisfaction, unless you purchase (only) such varieties as have proven their worth 
in your own experience. Gladiolus, Mrs. F. C. Hornberger, will keep from two to three 
times as long, under controlled conditions as will many other well known varieties. 
Some will not keep a week in the refrigerator, when cut in bud and precooled. 
psa ae. 
