4 Champlain View Gardens 
Best 25 Varieties 
Many people ask me to give them a list of the best 25, or best 10 or best some- 
thing else. There is no such list. There are many varieties in the top bracket but it would 
be impossible for anyone to select out 25 more or less that would be considered by 
everyone as the real aristocrats of gladdom. No variety pleases everyone no matter 
how good it is. There are so many types of glads each suited for different purposes that 
| don’t think that anyone can categorically say that 25 or any other number are the best. 
Are They Hard to Grow? 
No, but they do have a few fundamental requirements. They want sun all day and they 
will not stand wet feet. But aside from this they are about as easy a thing to grow as anything 
| know of. Where the soil is rather wet you may get some wonderful flowers but the bulbs will 
not be so good. The ideal situation would be to have them in soil with perfect drainage and 
then water them if necessary especially from the time the bloom spike appears above the leaves. 
What Constitutes a Good Glad? 
There are many things among which are the following—good color or at least different, 
good placement and attachment to the stem, long symmetrical head of bloom with at least fifteen 
buds and on the medium and large varieties at least six or eight open at a time with several more 
showing color. The whole plant should be on most types four feet or over in height with a stem 
half again as long as the head. The whole plant should be symmetrical. It should also have the 
ability to open in water after cutting and being out of water 2 or 3 days. And above all the 
variety should be healthy as without health a variety is simply of no use. Every variety of course 
doesn't have all the good points but to get by it should have enough good ones to offset any 
features that are not quite perfect. 
Time to Plant 
Many people in various parts of the country ask me when to plant. Here we start to plant 
about the first of May or sometimes a little earlier and continue up to about the middle of June. 
In southern California you can plant most any time of year. But those blooming in the winter 
don’t usually do so well. In Florida they plant from August to March. If in doubt as to when to 
plant in your locality better inquire from some local gardener who no doubt will know a lot 
more about it than | do. 
Number of Bulbs per Acre 
If you plant your bulbs in rows 3 feet apart each lineal foot of row occupies 3 square 
feet. As there are 43,560 square feet per acre you will see that with the rows 3 feet 
apart you will have nearly 14,500 lineal feet of row on an acre. You can plant from 3 
to 10 or more bulbs per running foot. From this you can figure out how many bulbs per 
acre with the rows 3 feet, more or less, apart. 
What Size to Plant? 
Bulbs are graded into 6 standard sizes for the wholesale trade. No. 1 is 1144” and 
up in diameter. If they run 2” or so they are called Jumbos. No. 2 is 114’"-1144”; No. 3 
is 1-114"; No. 4 34’"-1"; No. 5 %'’-34"", below % inch are No. 6's. No. 1’s and 9’s 
for the retail trade are called large, No. 3’s and 4’s are medium and No. 5’s and 6’s 
are small. 
Theoretically the larger the bulb the better the bloom. But this doesn’t always 
work out in practice. Some think they must have large ovérgrown bulbs, like those 


4 
“Two years ago | received one of your No. 1 unlabeled Collections and ten of your 65c 
specials. | have never seen such lovely glads,”’ —John Nickerson, Mass. 
