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INTRODUCTORY 
GAIN, this booklet is planned for 
Ase It adopts your point of view. 
It gives you hitherto unpublished 
facts upon which to base your own con- 
clusions. It is not cluttered up with 
fictitious values. 
This is cur 26th annual catalog. A 
quarter century of effort to help build 
up the hundred or so gladiolus societies 
now scattered all over the continent; of 
effort to be first in U.S. to evaluate, 
select and catalog for sale as introducer 
or co-introducer when _ possible’ the 
superior sorts from world-wide sources, 
often one to three years before other 
catalogers. Examples: Shirley Temple, 
Peggy Lou, Greta Garbo, Rosa van 
Lima, Coutts’ Orchid, Big Top, Flying 
Fortress, Tunia’s Mahomet, Tivoli, 
Strathnaver, Ravel, Carnival, Salman’s 
Glory, Marshal Montgomery, General 
Kisenhower, Hugh Price, Morning Kiss, 
World Beater, Circe, Necia, Benjamin 
Britten, Silcherlied, Prof. Goudriaan, 
Aristocrat, Menelik, Polynesie, Catherine 
Beath, New York, Sans Souci, Pennant, 
Leif Ericsson and Miss Holland, (even 
the oldest of which are still standing: 
the test of time) not to mention our 
own introductions of Boldface, Mid- 
America, Luxury and Polar Cub. 
For the last five years we have had 
daily access to and participation in the 
judging of thousands of new gorts in 
the largest gladiolus trial grounds in 
North America. Equally important, we 
eliminate quickly and ethically without 
comment, as do the trial garden reports, 
the thousand and one other current and 
proposed offerings which we have come 
to believe have no promise in the future. 
We do not think the pocket book of the 
buying public is the proper trial ground 
for sorting out the sheep from the 
goats. It is the duty of the industry at 
large and we know we are doing 
our share. 
Our bulbs are sound, 100%, are grown 
in heavy soil, entirely free of fusarium 
and other diseases and insect pests. 
We are generous well beyond the 
expectation of initial purchasers, with 
overcount, sample bulbs frequently of 
sorts in same color chosen, newer or 
superior or both. 
THE GLADIOLUS FANCIER’S GUIDEBOOK FOR 1954 — 
We do not issue a fall list and we do 
not solicit “pre-catalog” orders. Most of 
them require later revision because of 
abandoned varieties and price reductions. 
We do recommend that you place your 
order soon after receipt of this Guidebook 
to avoid, in so far as it is possible, the 
disappointment of sold out items. 
A variety has around thirty different 
characteristics to consider, relating to 
form, color, size, height, strength, sub- 
stance, season, bulb health, propaga- 
tion, ete. No cataloger can spare the 
time and space to describe them all, 
but we can and do report a glad’s most 
interesting features and you may defi- 
nitely assume, in the absence of specific 
mention of some undesirable traits, to the 
best of our knowledge and belief, the 
traits or habits not specifically mentioned 
are above the “satisfactory” level. 
When you note a Commercial “A” 
rating reported in this Guidebook, you 
may rest assured that, under normal 
growing conditions the variety will have 
a good stem, good flowerhead, passable 
to superior color, good propagation and 
no crooks. 
We purchase foreign varieties in their 
year of introduction, as close to their 
seed stage as possible to obtain healthy 
stocks before incursion of soil diseases 
and further hazards of variety mix- 
tures. And often at the each rate, with 
the result that, without heavy invest- 
ment, frequently we are first in U. S. 
with sufficient propagation to list the 
best items. 
A plump bulb of 1% inches diameter 
has plenty food to start production of 
a show specimen spike. A larger or 
jumbo bulb will require disbudding of 
all but the most prominent eye sprout 
to compel the bulb to put all its effort 
into the production of the best spike it 
is capable of producing. 
Being already divided, heavy divisions 
seldom start more than one eye, thus 
need no further disbudding to hold them 
to single spike plants. 
As orders come in we keep a running 
inventory of sales vs. stocks, in order to 
be aware when a size or a variety is 
sold out. About April 1st we abandon this 
safeguard because of press of shipping 
work and preparation for our own plant- 
ings. On these late orders it is often 
difficult to know offhand if an item 
will hold out to the order number until 
reached. 
HERBERT O. EVANS ar, state Route 91 
SOLON, OHIO 
