Small Talk 
Miniature and small type glads continue to gain pop- 
ularity. I know this not only from observing the trend 
at the shows but also from the increase in orders I am 
receiving each year. I sincerely thank my customers for 
this support. 
Last summer I traveled further afield to participate 
in shows of neighborhing states and spread the gospel 
of the little ones. To do this best I employed the able 
assistance of Mrs. Raymond Rohde of Maywood, Illinois, 
judge, lecturer, and teacher of the art of flower ar- 
ranging. 
We concentrated our efforts on commercial displays 
in which we demonstrated the splendid adaptibility of 
‘small glads to use in the home for the benefit and en- 
joyment of the living, not the dead. We made such dis- 
plays at the Indiana State Show in Wabash, the Illinois 
Gladiolus Society show at Chicago, and the Central In- 
ternational Show at East Lansing, Michigan. I am proud 
to state that we received a first place award for com- 
mercial display of 100 square feet at all three of these 
shows, and more important than this even was the fav- 
orable comments we received from the public. 
I did manage to get a few spikes in competition in 
some of the shows, too; in fact one show I attended at 
‘Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana was strictly a 
specimen show for seedlings and recent introductions. 
‘My entries, composed for the most part of miniature and 
small type recent introductions and my seedlings of 
same, netted me show sweepstakes and the Indiana sil- 
‘ver medal. My ruffled chartreuse seedling of Pelletier 
D’Oisy, scheduled for introduction in ’53, was best 3- 
‘spike 100/200 size seedling and the talk of the show. 
At the Central International show in East Lansing 
‘anether of my seedlings, which I have named Zig Zag 
(also to be released in ’53), was judged not only the 
best 100/200 size seedling but the best small type glad 
in the entire show. 
And finally, at Chicago my entry of a spike of Little 
Pal received the award of Best Commercial spike in the 
show and was reserve grand champion. (This is the 
spike appearing on the front cover.) This is indeed quite 
a feat for a small glad, and certainly it is ample proof 
that little glads can hold their own on the show table 
once more. ] 1 
There is now quite a scramble amongst hybridizers 
to bring out new varieties of small glads to meet the 
soaring demand. I grew many of these hopefuls on trial 
last summer for originators in various parts of North 
America. I am listing two of these which appeared to 
be worthy of a place in the line-up of ’52 introductions. 
I also test-grew all the 1951 introductions of smal? 
ones, but am adding very few to my ’52 listing since 
‘most proved to be over-size or gave inconclusive per- 
formance. 
I continued my search for worth while old varieties 
the past season, testing possibilities from Australia, New 
Zealand, and Canada as well as domestic varieties. I 
found little to reward my efforts, which leads me to con- 
clude that we have rediscovered about all there is of 
~value. j 
(3) 
