rowing @ etcrions for Cladiolus 
... and answers to questions often asked me about them 
Who should grow glads and why 
Everyone who likes flowers and has room in 
his garden should raise glads, as I know of no 
other flower that will give the allround satis- 
faction that glads will give. The range of color 
and form and size is almost infinite and so 
varieties can be found that will please everyone. 
There is something about gladiolus that “gets 
under your skin.” Io go out in the morning 
and see the new ones that have opened up during 
the night is a “joy supreme.” They are easy to 
raise and increase well. Many people tell me 
they get a great kick out of giving away the 
blooms to churches and to ‘“‘shut ins.’’ And the 
cost need not be great. 
Uses of glads 
They are used for every purpose for which 
flowers are employed. I know of no flower use 
for which types of glads cannot be found. 
Types of glads 
Gladiolus range in floret size from the 
miniatures, sometimes only an inch or so im 
diameter, to huge ones that often reach 7-8 
inches across, and in height from 2 ft. or so 
to over 6 ft. Some are plain petalled while 
others have various kinds of ruffling, fluting, 
rolled back petals, needlepoint, etc. In coloring 
there is almost no limit to what can be found 
in glads. 
A new type represented by Fantasy and 
Novelty Queen has spurs on the petals. These 
are very attractive and have sold at a premium 
in flower shops where offered. 
Which varieties for where 
Tho occasionally a variety does not do well 
in a certain locality, I think it is because it has 
not become acclimated or is due to some other 
cause than the variety itself. However varieties 
that have a tendency to have weak stems or a 
natural weakness are not so good in hot cli- 
mates. Also very late varieties are not so good 
for places having a short season unless planted 
early. Don’t give a variety final judgement the 
first season. It may be a knockout the next year. 
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Which varieties to grow 
This is something for you to decide. On 
pages 10-11 I give certain characteristics and 
colors of a number of varieties to help you in 
your selection. But I can’t tell definitely what 
you will like. ‘Tastes vary tremendously and 
there is such an infinite number of types, colors, 
etc., in glads that to say you will like this one 
or that one would be silly. 
I know the great number of varieties that I 
list is sometimes bewildering to beginners. So 
if you have not reached the ‘‘fan’’ or “bug”’ 
stage I recommend unlabelled collections to 
enable you to “get the feel’? of them before 
venturing into named varieties. But once you 
do get interested you will not be satisfied with- 
out knowing names. 
The best varieties 
I am often asked to give a list of best vart- 
eties. Best for what purpose? Best for show 
purposes might not be best for commercial cut 
flowers and you might like others better than 
either of the above classes. The best advice I 
know is to try them out and see what you like 
best. 
What constitutes a good 
gladiolus? 
I haven’t space here to go into all the qualifi- 
cations of various show types but will mention 
in general the qualities that a good variety 
should have. It should be healthy and not 
susceptible to various diseases that can attack 
gladiolus. It should have pleasing color, good 
attachment to the stem, regular placement, enuf 
open for the type with several showing color, a 
long head with sufficient total buds for the 
type, and a harmonious balance between length 
of stem, number open and total buds. Also it 
should usually have good texture, tho this is 
debatable. Many think the texture should be 
heavy but I have never found any connection 
between texture and keeping qualities. Very few 
varieties have all the good points, but any one 
variety should have enuf good ones or some 
especially good ones to offset certain other weak 
points. 
