Those Pesky 39,239 Seedling Bulbs 
It is quite possible that some our read- 
ers may wonder what happened to the 
thousands of small and medium seedling 
bulbs we wrote about in our last Catalog. 
We planted them about May 3 to 5, 1952, 
and most of them bloomed. They occu- 
pied three-fifths of an acre. We had about 
4,000 older seedlings, all in large bulbs that 
were planted immediately after the 39,239 
were put in the rows. Generally speaking 
the large ones bloomed first, and were 
very exciting, such huge spikes and lovely 
colors as appeared. We selected about 40 
from these large bulbs. 
The smaller bulbs started blooming in 
quantity, about August 5th, and were go- 
ing full blast by the time the Central In- 
ternational Show was being held. Folks 
who attended that show came out to the 
farm in droves to see our Glads, and the 
seedlings. Thirty to forty folks were roam- 
ing around here at one time, and what a 
thrill they were. Some made selections of 
seedlings, both for themselves and for us! 
As the summer wore on we continued 
tagging out some of these seedlings, and 
eventually had 350 or 360 tagged for fur- 
ther test. Some were rather common- 
place, it seemed, while a few of them were 
outstanding. I made about 100 “Stereo 
Realist” pictures of numerous selections so 
that we could see them again “during the 
winter”. (They were shown to the Sioux 
City Glad Society December 7th. We ex- 
pect to carry them to the Southland for 
company on our vacation. 
I should describe a few of these selec- 
tions. One was a creamy yellow, probably 
No. 300 size, with a very bright red blotch 
that was exceptionally beautiful. It was 
a seedling of Pactolus, but I am sure the 
throat was prettier than Pactolus herself. 
One day a little dark red one appeared, 
with about 2% inch florets. I cut it rather 
carelessly, and the next day it had eight 
open, and as fine a “small” glad as I have 
ever seen. I hope I have the bulb, but am 
not 100% sure. There were only three 
open when I cut it. The finest large 
seedling came along late, a pink blush or 
Flesh colored bloom. I knew before it 
opened that something was coming; so 
when four were opened I took the spike in 
and it eventually held seven open; huge 
6-inch florets, and the plant up to my ears 
in size. It was very very beautiful in 
color, and seemingly perfect in form— 
erectness, etc. It had 28 bulblets when 
dug. Parentage was Phantom Beauty by 
Elizabeth the Queen. We found three 
very cute “Small” glads in a row of Wedg- 
wood seedling, but the bulbs were not too 
strong. Wedgwood has her trials in our 
soil. One day I noticed a powerful spike 
stretching up with two side spikes, with a 
total of 39 buds carried on this one plant, 
and all of them were in full color, seem- 
ingly ready to open when I cut the spike 
and took it to the meeting of the Sioux 
City Society. About half of these buds 
showed the lovely ruffling that would ap- 
pear on each bloom. Finally three florets 
came out into bloom, but, sad to relate, the 
color of the opened bloom was not out- 
standing. My friend Bruce Collins says I 
surely must cross it on White Gold. I 
hope I can make it. Picture a spike of 
White Gold with 39 buds, and maybe half 
of them open at once! 
Once a week I asked Earl, our yard boy, 
to cut all the seedling blooms from the 
field, with two or more open. It would 
require two trips with our pickup truck to 
haul away the discarded blooms. Seemed 
like a wasteful procedure, but it saved me 
the time of looking at each one again. 
I have been accused of being too tough 
on my own seedlings. However, it is not 
important that I ever name one; altho I 
do hope to, and before too long. I could 
name that little blotched Pactolus seedling 
now, if I had stock enough of it. I carried 
the single spike around town just to make 
folks ask questions. They did. I made 277 
crosses again this summer, and gathered 
something like 75,000 or 100,000 seeds. Just 
having fun, and hoping 
THE TOP FIFTEEN: 
Many folks come to our office and ask for bulbs, and often ask about the selections 
“we would make”. 
garden, if we were limited to fifteen glads. 
The following fifteen would just about cover our selection for a 
Alphabetical, but not in order of preference. 
AUREOLE MOTHER FISCHER RED WING 
BOISE BELLE NOWETA ROSE SPIC & SPAN 
BURMA PACTOLUS TIVOLI 
FRIENDSHIP PHANTOM BEAUTY TYRONE 
GOLD RED CHARM WEDGWOOD 
We could be wrong in a few places, but this list is moderately priced, and within 
the reach of average people. 
the price asked. 
One or two are still a little high, but are no doubt worth 
ee 
