Page 30 
THE GLADIOLUS FANCIERS 

ed indoors in the light but not sunlight, away 
from any breeze, making better exhibition 
spikes and preventing any fading of colors such 
as is sometimes found in some of the finest 
orange scarlets, as well as preventing wilting 
of varieties without strong substance. Cut 
stem slantwise to provide larger drinking area 
and place in water at once to avoid air pockets 
in stem. Allow three or four leaves to remain 
on the plant to mature the new bulb which is 
hardly half grown when spike is cut. At least 
six more weeks are needed to mature the bulb, 
except where blooms are from large bulbs of 
very late sorts, or where blooms arrive at 
late season from young planting stock. 
However, bulbs should be dug while the 
plants are still green and do not delay too 
long after average killing frost date in your 
area. 
DONT’S ON DIGGING 
Do not leave part of stem on bulb, cut 
close and burn the tops. 
Do not leave bulbs to dry where frosts can 
reach. 
Do not pile deeply. Quick drying (not in 
hot sunlight) is extremely important to pre- 
vent spread of diseases in storage. 
Do not remove roots and old bulb for some 
weeks unless old bulb is soft or shows decay. 
Wait until they separate with ease and 
without tearing the new root base. 
BULBLETS 
The little hard shelled bulblets will not 
germinate until moisture reaches them. There- 
fore, it pays to keep them on the moist, 
almost continuously wet side to rot the shell 
until they begin to appear. Bulblets in quan- 
tity may be bagged, kept moist by occasional 
immersion in warm water and in a warm 
place, for a week or so, to hasten the shell 
rotting process. If some start rooting, plant 
all. If expensive bulblets in small lots, you 
may chip off a fragment of the shell with 
point of a small pocket knife, using care not 
to injure eye or root base. [Plant early, as 
soon as ground warms in spring. 
BULB SURGERY 
A few specks of disease spots, wire worm 
injury or scab may be gouged out without the 
slightest harm to the plant provided the 
bulb retains a good eye and root base. 
Cutting out these segments only cuts away 
that much food to start off the new plant. 
Best dust the cut surface with powdered 
charcoal. Next best common sulphur or at 
least dry until bleeding stops before planting. 
Or wipe the cut surface dry with some pa- 
per towelling and then paint well with melted 
paraffin. 
You may do these things any time during 
the storage period, too, or just rely on corros- 
ive sublimate treatment to clear them up. 
A plump bulb of 114 inches diameter has 
plenty food to start production of a show 
specimen spike. If the bulb is 2 inches or 
more in diameter it may have two or more 
prominent eyes or sprouts, indicating that 
it will make as many stalks and spikes. Now 
this one bulb cannot be expected to make two 
or more spikes of the same show specimen 
quality it would produce if held to a single 
eye and spike. If you want to bring renewed 
youth and vigor to your old jumbo bulbs and 
beat the other fellow, just disbud the bulb, 
i.e., gouge out all eyes except the most prom- 
inent one. just as you gouged out the little 
specks of scab or disease, dusting as before. 
We are of opinion that bulbs may be lost by 
this process only by failure to heal the cut 
surface sufficiently before planting. 
THRIPS 
If thrips appear on your plants they must 
be controlled before the bud spikes emerge 
from the foliage. Watch for any silvery gray 
streaks on the foliage. If permitted to in- 
crease unmolested they will extract juices 
from the buds resulting in a burned appear- 
ance, they will eat streaks of color off the 
petals even before they unfold and if they 
unfold at all, the petals may crimp up their 
edges. and dry to a dull brown. Even the 
young, lemon colored thrips may do this 
damage to the bud so it is important to kill 
such adult thrips as may arrive before they 
lay eggs, also because the young have the 
bad habit of staying inside the bud and crev- 
ices of the plant where they are hard to reach 
with insecticides. The silvery gray (feeding) 
streaks cn the foliage, in badly infested cases, 
turn brown, stopping both plant and bulb 
growth. 
In our opinion, thrips come more into the 
open during the hours of 4-6 P.M., so spray- 
ing is most effective if done at that time. 
Also, the less heat the safer for the plants 
and evaporation is retarded. If plants are 
thirsty when spray is applied, spraying 
hazards are increased. Plants should be 
well watered but the foliage should be dry 
before the spray is applied. Spraying but 
one part of the patch only is inadvisable on 
account of the migratory habits of the insect. 
Above all. we beg our readers not to put 
off inspecting the plants for thrips infestation 
until blooms appear. If they already have 
a good foothold at that time you may have 
a very discouraging task on your hands. 
We recommend preventive spraying. 
once every 10 days after plants are up 6 or 8 
inches until blooming. In any event, have 
your insecticide on hand to use if needed. 
The thrips problem is now satisfactorily 
solved—a great blessing to all concerned. 

