OVER THE GARDEN GATE 
HOWDY FOLKS: 
This nice spring weather makes me want to get a lot of 
post cards and send them out. You know the kind | mean. One 
of our bathing beaches just loaded down with pretty girls and 
a line saying, ‘Wish you were here.'’ We do wish you were 
here paying us a visit. You would be interested in walking 
around through the millions of plants growing here. 
First we would take you through a section where we have 
hundreds of specimen plants growing in gallon cans. There is 
almost always something in bloom there. One place in the 
path, | always tell the girls to be careful. Else the long hooked 
spines of some barrel cactus would not only take their nylons 
off but their girdles too. The plants in this section are not for 
sale at any price, as they are our seed producing plants. 
Then we would visit the glasshouse where | spend most of 
my time from October to May in sowing seeds and taking care 
of the seedling flats. This house holds about five hundred and 
fifty flats, which need the tender care of a nursing baby. 
Likely we would follow Bob as he carries a flat of seed- 
lings into the work room where nothing but planting is done. 
Cactus seedlings do not grow uniformly, so Lucile will start to 
work digging them and sorting to size. As fast as she sorts 
them, Polly and Eva will plant them, usually four hundred to 
a flat as we use slightly larger flats than most of you. The 
girls’ nimble fingers really fly as the spines of seedlings are too 
soft to bother them. It's a slower job, six months to a year later 
when the four hundreds get crowded and the plants have to be 
sorted to size again and replanted. 
Freddie will wheel the flats from the work room into a 
larger un-heated glasshouse where the plants are grown for 
varying periods. The sturdier ones are gradually moved on out 
into the Lumite and lath houses. There the flats are placed in 
rows of four on concrete bars which keep the flats off the 
ground to give better drainage and reduce the danger of pest 
infestation. We will usually find a few small lizzards around 
the lath houses, sitting in the sun. They are harmless and we 
like them as they help to keep the bugs down and are big fac- 
tors in keeping ours one of the cleanest nurseries there is. 
After the lath houses, we will pass through the open flat 
yard sections where the hardiest kinds are enjoying the sun on 
more concrete bars. Away out in the ‘South Forty’’ are more 
than an acre of net houses where we have Haworthias and 
some cactus in beds of steam sterilized soil. We had to do 
some inventing of equipment to make the planting of these 
beds easy. We will demonstrate when you come. These net 
houses and flat yards are watered by traveling sprinklers which 
just walk along a hose laid down in the paths. They surely save 
a lot of time over having to stand out there with a hose and 
water by hand. 
On the lower edge of the growing section, we will likely 
find Tom running the soil screener and steam sterilizer. Tom 
shovels the soil mixture into this Rube Goldberg contraption and 
does not touch it again until it comes out the other end all 
mixed, screened and heated to about two hundred degrees. 
In the packing room near Anita's office, we will find Harold 
packing the shipments. This is the only job he has had since he 
got out of school ten years ago. The plants have to be dug, the 
soil shaken off and dried for at least twenty-four hours to re- 
move excess moisture before packing. We have a dryer equip- 
ped with heater and fan to speed up this drying in wet weath- 
er. We take pride in prompt shipment and if an order is not 
shipped out in less than a week after it is received, it is be- 
cause we are really snowed under with a spasm of business. 
We are not open Saturday and Sunday so try to get out most 
shipments on Thursday and Friday in order that they will not 
lay in some locked up express office over the week end. 
Then if you are still able after walking a couple of miles, 
we will go up the hill to the Lower California Botanical Garden 
on our way out to the ‘North Forty’', where we grow Aloes, 
Opuniias and other cutting producing types in long rows laid 
out like a truck farm. Formerly we used Marquita, a small mule 
out here, but we retired her in favor of a garden tractor. 
From the tenth to the fifteenth of July, the Cactus and Suc- 
culent Society of America will have their bi-ennial convention 
at Arcadia, which is about thirty-five miles from us. You never 
saw a group have as good a time as these folks do at a con- 
vention. They would be glad to have you take that long prom- 
ised California trip at that time and join in with them. Drop me 
a line and I'll tell you more about it. 
In the twenty-four years that we have been growing, we 
have tried out and discarded hundreds of kinds. We have elim- 
inated all the ‘‘weedy'’ types and picked out the ones which 
are the best to grow. Some kinds we grow by the hundred 
thousands. This enables us to supply those who wish to order 
large quantities Under name. For those who want only a few 
hundred assorted, we have made up some very fine assort- 
ments. These are not blends of a lot of cheap kinds sweetened 
up with a few good ones. Every plant is worthy of a place in 
its price group and we put in equal numbers of every kind that 
we include. You may order these assortments under the names 
given below. We will label with names of plants free of charge 
when it is requested. Otherwise they are shipped without label- 
ling. 
ne are offering for the first time an assortment of good 
plants planted in colorful 21/4-in. plastic pots each with a neat- 
ly printed plastic label. These can only be shipped in units of 
49 to the carton. With the light weight soil we have prepared 
these cartons of 49 only weigh about eleven pounds. So the 
express rate per pot will be lower if several cartons are ordered 
at a time. The price is $9.80 per carton of 49 and there will not 
be more than two of any one kind in a carton. 
We are looking for you. 
HOWARD GATES. 
Prices listed are for 100 of a kind. For smaller lots.of a kind add the following percent- 
ages to the price: 3 to 6 plants add 50%; 7 to 11 add 30%; 12 to 24 add 20%; 25 of 
a kind or more take the hundred rate. Minimum wholesale order is $5.00. Approximate 
sizes of the plants we offer are given in inches below the price group headings. For 
quantity discounts see “TERMS”. 
Price Group A B Cc D 
CACTUS PLANTS PricetpertiCOMmeSsI00 $7.50 $10.00 $15.00 
ASTROPHYTUM myriostigma. Spineless Bishop Cap. Globular, usually five angled, covered 
with: white dotsyellow® flowencco1 cco goes os ees es ee eee 1-2 
ASTROPHYTUM ornatum. Spiny Bishop Cap. Globular, usually five angled, many white 
dots, stout spines, yellow flower_...............-.--.------.-----------2---e 
sete tees ee re a ee 1-2 2-2/2 
CARNEGIA gigantea. Arizona Giant. Globular, becoming heavy columnar, many ribbed, 
short *Stout yS pines eeccc > seeee ee ree cere ee ee ee 
Sa eee ee 1-2 2-2 
CEREUS peruvianus. Peruvian Apple Cactus. Tall, angular, bluish. short spines......__________- 2-31, 3-5 5-8 
CEREUS peruvianus monstrosus. Tall, columnar, knobby and knarled_.........___..________... 2-3 3-5 6-8 
CHAMAECEREUS sylvestrii. Peanut Cactus. Clustering short branches, small spines, vermil- 
Vitorn: FL We tious ese a a ee ee ee ee 2-3 3-4 
CLEISTOCACTUS straussii. Silver Torch. Stout columnar, fluted, covered with weak, short, 
light” colored (spines... 2.6... ee ee ne ce ee eee 2-3 3-5 5-6 
DOG TAILS. Slender cactus suitable for animal tails, assorted_......................22--2-------2-- 2-3 3-5 
