RAMBLING REMARKS 
With this, our new catalog for the 1952 season, we send greetings 
and best wishes to all our glad friends and customers everywhere. While 
we know that last summer’s weather was far from ideal in many places, 
we hope that most of you had a good glad year, and we wish you the 
very best for 1952. 
Here in southwestern Idaho the season was alternately quite cool 
and extremely hot; later the unseasonal fall rains interfered considerably 
with our bulb digging schedule. Although we harvested about our usual 
good crop of healthy bulbs, the total quantity available is less than we 
anticipated, and less than we will probably need for our growing bulb 
business. 
From all over the country we hear reports of a shortage of large- 
size bulbs, and this is true of our own supply. Fall and early winter 
orders have further depleted our stocks, particularly of the No. 1 size. 
However, as most experienced growers know, large bulbs are not an 
essential for high-quality flowers. Many gladiolus varieties will bloom 
just as well from the medium sizes, especially from No. 3’s, the size we 
furnish on orders for medium bulbs as long as they last. Most varieties 
do very well from No. 4’s too. Small bulbs, sizes 5 and 6, are grown 
mostly to produce large bulbs for the following season, although many 
will bloom and make fair spikes. 
One of the high spots of the blooming season for the true glad fan 
is the exhibiting of some of his flowers at the various shows held through- 
out the country. If you have never entered any of these friendly competi- 
tions, we suggest you take a few of your best flowers to a show next 
summer. You will probably find that your blooms are as good or better 
than most, and likely they may win some blue ribbons or even some of 
the higher awards. The amateur or backyard grower who will take time 
to give his glads a bit of extra feeding and watering can often raise glads 
far superior to those grown by large operators with many acres of glads. 
There are just three essentials to keep in mind: Start with clean, healthy 
bulbs of up-to-date varieties, give them good culture with plenty of water, 
and KEEP AFTER THE THRIPS! Most beginners in the glad game 
don’t realize what damage this almost invisible insect can do to their 
flowers until some blooms are badly infested. But thrips are really very 
easily controlled by spraying or dusting with DDT once every week or 
ten days from the time the plants are six inches high until they bloom. 
We are sometimes asked if the modern glads are really so much better 
than the older varieties. Our answer is that they certainly are, provided 
you choose only the best of the newer introductions. Their colors are clearer 
and brighter with more attractive shadings and markings; some with 
lovely combinations of colors unknown only a few short years ago. There 
is a wide range of floret size to suit everyone, from giant to miniature. 
And attractively frilled or ruffled florets are getting to be the rule rather 
than the exception. Whether you grow glads for sale as cut flowers or 
bulbs, to try to win prizes and championship rosettes at the shows, or 
just for your own enjoyment and that of your friends, we feel sure that 
an investment in some of the modern gladiolus varieties will be profitable. 
We spend a lot of time each year testing and sorting out the best newer 
glads for inclusion in our listing. We hope that you will find our catalog 
helpful in making your selections for the coming season. 
In the variety descriptions in our. general list we have made mention 
of some of the more prominent winnings of various glads at last summer’s 
shows in the U. S. and Canada. These are probably not complete due to 
late reporting of some shows. All winnings, unless otherwise noted, refer 
to the 1951 show season only, as we believe our customers are interested 
in knowing what a particular variety is doing today, not three or five 
years ago. Of course there are dozens of good glads that will never take 
a show championship, yet are fine cut flowers, and are often good enough 
to take first prizes in their respective color classes. Naturally we can’t 
list all these prizes, so we limit mention to the higher awards and special 
honors only. 
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