Rambling Remarks 
First of all, may we extend our sincere thanks to our hundreds of 
customers who by your fine orders made last year one of our best. We also 
greatly appreciate the dozens of unsolicited letters we receive each year, 
telling of your success with our bulbs and our originations. They are a 
constant source of inspiration to us to try to produce even better bulbs 
and more beautiful new varieties for your gardening pleasure. 
The cool, moist spring and summer in many parts of the country were 
seemingly made to order for fine gladiolus bloom. Here in Idaho we had 
just such a season, altho a hot period at flowering time seemed to produce 
more crooked stems and misplaced florets than usual. Growth and bulb 
production, however, were never better. 
As usual we have added a number of new varieties to our listing this 
year. We believe these additions are the “cream of the crop,’ having been 
selected while a great many others tested did not make the grade tor us. 
Of course we have had to drop about an equal number of older glads to 
make room for the newcomers. It is always a problem to know which ones 
to discard, altho often some fault in growth or propagation makes the 
decision easier. Then many are discontinued because similar new ones are 
better in color, form, or growing habits. Gladiolus hybridists seem to be 
working overtime nowadays in producing new varieties. Some are intro- 
duced that never should have been named, of course, but trial gardens 
and seedling shows are helping weed out many of the less meritorious be- 
fore introduction. 
For a good many years we have grown not less than 20,000 bulbs from 
seed per season, and in 1950 our seed bed produced more than 32,000 bulbs. 
These are all from hand-crossed seeds, using only the best varieties or 
seedlings as parents. In fact in nearly every cross at least ONE of those 
used is a “proved” parent; that is, we know from our records that it 
has been a consistent producer of good seedlings. We discard after second 
or third blooming about 99% of our seedling bulbs; but of course the re- 
maining 1% comprises around 200 or more separate selections which we 
grow and propagate, while testing and evaluating them. If, as has been 
our custom, we name and introduce only one or two new seedlings per 
year, we naturally have a lot of very promising material left over. It is 
from these selections that we choose our Premium Seedlings, bulbs of 
which are given to our customers with orders, as mentioned later on in 
this catalog. 
The clever poem on the opposite page is reprinted with the author’s 
permission from an old 1937 bulletin of the American Gladiolus Society. 
To bring the subject of thrips-control up to date, we have substituted 
“DDT” for “Rototox” in the first stanza (Rototox was the standard thrips 
spray at that time); otherwise the poem is just as appropriate today as 
it was 14 years ago! Incidentally, many growers still refer to a single spec- 
imen of this pestiferous insect as “thrip.” Actually the correct usage is 
“thrips” for both singular and plural—for one or a million! It is a short- 
ened version of the scientific name for this pest—‘taeniothrips gladioli.” 
We often wonder how many people who used to grow glads but gave them 
up when thrips became so bothersome, still do not know that modern insec- 
ticides have solved this problem. Thanks to DDT, it is easy to raise perfect 
blooms with only a little precaution in storage and in the field. 
We are indebted to the Lasch Bulb Farm for the fine photo of Red 
Cherry in our catalog, and to J. R. and C. T. Larus for their nice picture 
of Quiberon. We failed to take as many glad pictures as usual last summer, 
but we have resolved to take more of them another year, both in color and 
black and white. Our kodachrome transparencies are a big help in writing 
our catalog; by referring to our field notes and then viewing the color 
slides we seem to have each lovely variety on parade before us, long after 
the actual blooms have faded away. 
