WHITE CHALLENGE 501-85 (Arnett 47) Heavily textured white with a light rose pink 
blush and a pleasing rose throat. Healthy and vigorous plant. L 1—$3.50 M 1—$2.50 
WHITE EAGLE 300-85 (Ellis 39) An exquisite medium size white, heavily ruffled. Long 
graceful spikes that are very beautiful. L 1—25c M 2—25c S 4—25c 
WHITE GOLD 506-70 (Scheer 41) One of the most satisfactory of all glads for the home 
garden. Huge creamy florets on a tall spike. Plant is very large and healthy. 
L 38—25e M 5—25c S 6—25c 
WHITE MAGIC 500 (Kuhn 47) Heavily ruffled, clear white. Has a cool, crisp, breath- 
taking quality. Opens six large florets on tall straight spikes. L or M 1—$3.00 
WHITE SATIN 100-70 (Koerner 42) Pure cream white with white stamens and pistil. A 
true ‘face up’. Thin wiry stems carrying 11% to 2 inch florets. L 2—25c 
YANKEE LASS 440-80 (Schenetsky 46) A beautiful bright pink, very tall, up to 10 good 
size florets open on a long flowerhead. A sensational glad. 
L 1—$2.50 M 1—$1.50 S 1—$1.00 
GLADIOLUS CULTURE 
The following suggestions apply to average normal growing conditions and necessarily 
must be rather general. 
Stock for Planting: Secure healthy stock from a reliable source specializing in grow- 
ing quality gladiolus bulbs. Maximum size bloom usually are obtained from large, plump, 
high-crowned bulbs of at least an inch or more in diameter. A large bulb is simply a 
larger storehouse of food for the plant than a small one. Also a large bulb usually pro- 
duces two or more spikes. When you receive your bulbs, open the package to admit air 
and leave the package open until you plant your bulbs. Sealed in an air tight package, 
bulbs will, after a time, mold. 
Planting: Plant your bulbs when the trees are leafing out and the soil has warmed. 
In Madison we plant from early in April until the middle of June, altho we make our 
main planting during the month of May. We always save a few varieties like Shirley 
Temple to plant June 15 for late cut flowers. Any soil that will produce good vegetables 
will give you good glads. Plant in full sunshine away from trees and shrubbery. Cover 
the bulbs with 5 to 6 inches of soil—deep planting helps to support the plant and puts the 
bulb where there is usually sufficient moisture. 
Fertilizing: You can do harm with too much fertilizer. We suggest a side dressing 
after the plants are up followed by a thorough soaking with water. Use any complete 
fertilizer—just do not use an excess. Two or three light feedings will do more than one 
heavy. 
Cultivation: Glads do not like to be in competition with weeds and like to have the 
ground to themselves. Do not cultivate deep—two inches is sufficient. When the weeds 
are in the garden, cut them off but don’t make too much work of it! 
Watering: A large gladiolus bulb has sufficient food stored in it to produce a good 
spike in any soil provided it has sufficient water and good drainage. In other words, 
water is more important to glads than fertilizer. We plan to irrigate all our glads next 
year. A good thorough soaking once every week to ten days will do wonders for your 
glads, and by a good soaking we mean the equivalent of one inch of water. 
Spraying: If your neighbors grow glads, you will probably have thrips in your glads. 
By the time you notice them it will be almost too late to do much. So the safe thing is 
to spray DDT every two weeks starting in June and continuing until you cut your spikes. 
We use one ounce of 50% DDT, wettable, in 3 gallons of water. We keep a hive of honey 
bees within fifty feet of one end of our gladiolus garden and have never found that DDT 
injured the bees—maybe we are lucky! But since we have been spraying with DDT (and 
we always use up what spray we have left in the tank on shrubbery around the house) 
we haven’t noticed so many mosquitoes and flies around the place! 
While we use spray (the spray is mounted on the tractor) you can also use 5% DDT 
dust with equal success. Dust should be applied early in the morning or late in the eve- 
ning while dew is on the plants. 
Cutting Bloom: Cut your bloom in the morning, preferably when one or two florets 
are open. Glads last much longer when cut and taken indoors. We like to nick the stem 
