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Immaculate was a sensation at 
the Binghamton, 1947 show 
where it received an A rating. 
It was beaten three votes to two 
for grand champion seedling of 
the show. However, in field 
performance it hasn't quite 
measured up to expectations, 
probably because | had held 
high hopes that it would match 
Spic and Span for easy growing 
qualities. 
Immaculate can easily be your 
finest gladiolus, and will be if 
you give it a little extra atten- 
tion. It opens many florets at 
once and is highly ruffled, so, 
like almost every ruffled variety, 
it needs water and good fer- 
tilization to give the spikes maxi- 
mum height. 
Florets are 4!/,-5" of excellent 
substance and will open 10 to 12 
at one time on a tall, always per- 
fectly straight spike. You will 

note, also, that the plant has ten 
leaves, rather than the seven on 
most varieties. Overall height 
55-60". Flower heads 26-30", 
well over 22 buds. 
Immaculate is excellent for hy- 
bridizing. Its parentage (seed- 
ling of Picardy x Maid of Or- 
leans crossed with Mary Eliza- 
beth) gives it a good back- 
ground. Mr. Carlson recently 
wrote to me saying that the ma- 
jority of his 1948 seedling selec- 
tions came from Immaculate. 
| have set a very modest price 
on this new introduction. | am 
confident that it will prove of 
greater beauty and importance 
than the price reflects. If so, 
the advantage will be all in your 
favor, with a good opportunity 
to prove the best investment 
you ever made in gladiolus. 
| Bulb, any size, and 10 
Bulblets $3.50 
CHAPTIR Box 

For the first time in 
several years most 
of the show season 
was favored with 
excellent weather, 
cool for midsummer, 
with the result that 
the shows really 
were very fine and filled with out- 
standing quality blooms. You will 
note from the show reports that there 
were more varieties than usual repre- 
sented among the champions this 
year. A different variety won at 
every show | visited. My opinion is 
that this was brought about by the 
fact that the better growing season 
made it possible to get the winning 
spikes from some varieties difficult 
Wwe, 1948 WAS A GREAT SHOW SEASON 
to grow unless they have favored 
conditions. 
My interest at the shows is always 
centered in the seedling section. 
From the great many seedlings dis- 
played it is apparent that we are de- 
veloping more and more noteworthy 
hybridists. It is, therefore, necessary 
to be more critical in judging this 
section, as only a limited number of 
varieties can be introduced and 
marketed profitably. Probably you, 
too, have noticed that the color 
classes are becoming filled with finer 
and improved varieties. This all 
means that the hybridists must work, 
and they are working, for greater re- 
finement in gladiolus, purer tones of 
coloring, finer ruffling, better all- 
