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ROSE GEM 
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these are not adapted to northeastern U. S. They 
are popular in California to which climate they 
are suited and are there known as Baby Glad- 
iolus. 
The progenitors of our modern gladiolus as we 
know them are found on the east coast in the 
vicinity of Natal. The eastern coast which is 
partially protected, gets most of its rainfall in 
summer showers from the southeastern Monsoons 
coming in from the Indian Ocean. Thus the 
growing season of the gladiolus of the eastern 
region is the warm, moist summer, the drier 
winters being the rest period. The long, warm 
growing season is conducive to slower growth, 
late flowering and large size of plant. Consequent- 
ly, many of the gladiolus from there are tall, 
vigorous growers. When these forms were cross- 
ed with one another and with the early blooming 
sorts, they gave rise to our modern race of large 
summer-flowering varieties. 
Two of the summer flowering species used were 
Gladiolus psittacinus, a very homely red and yel- 
low spotted affair and Gladiolus oppostiflorous 
or opposite flowered gladiolus. The opposite 
flowered gladiolus is tall, growing often four or 
five feet high with long spikes with as many as 
40 florets. The pink tinted, white flowered va- 
rieties get their coloring mostly from this species 
and both the tendency toward dark lines in the 
throat and toward erect, pointed-petalled flowers 
may be traced to it. Among our modern named 
varieties the opposite floweredness of Dream O’ 
Beauty is traced to this species. The third glad- 
iolus which contributed much to the advancement 
of modern gladiolus is Gladiolus purpeo-aurtaus 
or purple-spotted gladiolus. The blotched varie- 
ties are derived from this species. 
“But from whence come the so-called “blues” 
as Blue Beauty and Ave Maria?’’ you ask, ‘*‘When 
there is nothing in the species group that ap- 
proximates this color.” 
The purple spotted species was crossed with an- 
other species, the Gladiolus papilio, or the But- 
terfly gladiolus. After many generations of hy- 
bridizing our ‘“‘blues’’ and rich purples evolved. 
That the ‘blues’ and the purples are related is 
proved by the fact that in crossing a “blue” with 
a ‘“‘blue”’ a large percentage of purples result. 
In all gladiolus breeding the most important 
species used was Gladiolus primlinus or the Maid 
of the Mist of Victoria Falls, South Africa. It is 
a small, hooded, primrose yellow flower. This 
species has given delicate coloring, slender grace, 
productiveness, heat resistance, vigor, large and 
well spaced florets on tall spikes to our modern 
gladiolus. Usually the florets are a trifle hooded. 
We can be eternally grateful to this bountiful 
species for giving us such a fine variety as 
Picardy. 
The species G. Saunderii and Cruentus have 
also contributed to the gladiolus. 
G. primulinus has also given earliness to our 
modern blood line. Our earliest current varieties 
such as Early Gold, Arethusa, Babs, Brightside, 
Lavender and Gold, Starlet and Goldstaub re- 
semble the species in color or form or both. 
The following is a brief descriptive summary of 
the appearance of each of these wild glads (all 
form South Africa): 
Psittacinus — scarlet with yellow throat, opening 
8 small blooms. 
Oppositiflorus—white sometimes tinted pink, 6 ft. 
tall, 40 buds, opposite flowering. 
Purpreo-auratus — light yellow with purple 
blotch, small flowered. 
Papilio—lavender with yellow throat, small flow- 
ered. 
Saundersii—scarlet with white throat, large wide 
open flowers. 
Cruentus—blood red with white throat, large, 
round flowers. 
Primulinus — light yellow with small hooded 
blooms and wiry stem. 
Looking back, we can trace all our modern red 
glads to psittacinus, saundirsii and cruentus; all 
our whites to oppositiflorus, all our blotched to 
