‘Rambling Remarks 
Greetings to glad fans and growers everywhere — may 1949 bring you 
the best glad season ever! This catalog marks our tenth year in the 
business of growing and selling gladiolus bulbs. Of course we grew some 
glads for a good many years before that as a hobby and part-time source 
of revenue. We seem to have followed the pattern of most commercial 
growers in this respect — when the “glad bug” bites, nothing will satisfy 
but to grow more and more bulbs and buy ever newer and better varieties. 
We harvested a larger crop of bulbs than usual, and quality is fully up 
to our high standard. Our dry climate, abundant irrigation water from 
nearby mountains, and well-drained sandy loam soil all combine to produce 
high quality bulbs for the finer flowers you desire and deserve. We ordi- 
narily get little or no rain from June until November, so we give our 
plantings a good surface soaking once a week for maximum uninterrupted 
growth. Last year we turned the water down the rows for the first time 
on May 10th, while the last irrigation was made on October 15th when the 
ground was getting too dry for easy bulb digging. 
The post-war years have seen a heavy influx of new foreign intro- 
ductions, including an extremely large number from the Netherlands. A 
few of these have been good, but the majority have been disappointing 
to discriminating American growers. A good many from “down under” 
have also failed to measure up to our standards, although Errey Brothers 
and some others in Australia and New Zealand have been putting out some 
very good new varieties. Of course each country has its own standard of 
perfection,. and it is safe to say that a good many of our finest new glads 
will disappoint our friends across the oceans, because they may not open 
enough or fail to make the formal tapering spikes they demand. 
In Canada and the United, States the caj! is for good clear color first 
of all; good substance and attractive form of floret, preferably with some 
ruffling of the petals, and of course good strong tall growth and propaga- 
tion. Varieties that have these attributes are equally desirable for exhibi- 
tion or florist use, and fortunately our hybridists on both sides of the border 
are giving us many such fine new gladiolus. 
Exhibiting at the shows and winning prizes is a very exciting and satis- 
fying aspect of our hobby, but to a real glad fan the ultimate thrill comes 
in hybridizing and blooming one’s own seedlings. If you have never done 
any crossing, be sure to try it next summer, The technigue is simple — 
just brush a pollen-covered stamen (via tweezers) of one variety onto the 
hairy-surfaced stigma of another. I use Prof. Palmer’s suggestion of 
pinning the fertilized stigma to an upper petal with a toothpick. I believe 
Palmer no longer practices this himself, but where humming birds are a 
problem as they are here, some protection is necessary to keep the birds 
from brushing off the pollen. Mark the cross (Seed Parent x Pollen 
Parent) on a label attached to the stem. In a few weeks the seed pods 
will ripen; gather them when they start to split open. Store the cleaned 
seed in sealed envelopes; if storage is warm they may be placed in tight 
glass or metal containers to prevent too much drying out. 
We plant our seed about one-half inch deep in open beds about the 
middle or latter part of April. If a hot bed or cold frame is used they 
can be planted much earlier. Water frequently until germination takes 
place (about 18 days), and keep up the watering through the entire growing 
season, never letting the bed completely dry out, On digging in October the 
bulbs will usually run mostly medium and small sizes; hot bed culture 
gives many large sizes if not planted too thickly. A majority of the buibs 
should bloom the following year, but may not give typical spikes until 
second year blooming. You will want to pull up most of them when they 
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