Cordial Greetings 
To Our Friends Everywhere. 
This year we are happy to be celebrating over 20 years of 
growing Gladiolus and our 10th year of issuing a retail catalog. 
Our first interest in glads developed from a few bulbs 
given to us by a friend. We enjoyed the blooms so much that 
the following year we grew over 30 different varieties, about 
400 bulbs in all. First thing we knew the glads took over the 
vegetable garden or at least moved it out of our back yard. 
Year after year we grew more and more glads, won many 
ribbons at shows and generously gave flowers and bulbs to 
anyone interested in gladiolus. The bulbs we harvested always 
looked nice because even in our early years we were as much 
interested in growing and harvesting good bulbs as we were 
in having prize winning blooms to cut. 
The latter part of our 1953 growing season was hot and 
dry, not so good for flowers but certainly perfect for bulbs. 
Hot days and nights with artificial watering as needed resulted in 
remarkable bulb growth and we harvested a large crop of as 
near perfect bulbs as we have ever grown. Reports from many 
sections of the country indicate large bulbs to be scarce. We are 
indeed thankful for our good crop of jumbo and large, clean, 
healthy and bright looking bulbs—the solid, plump, high crowned 
kind we have for filling all your orders this year. 
Among our thousands of customers are many who will 
remember our first Catalog, really not a Catalog at all, just a 
small 4 page leaflet. Since then we have shipped millions of 
bulbs to customers here and abroad. It has always been our 
policy, when filling orders, to include many extra bulbs for 
trial. This year, in celebrating the beginning of our business, 
we will go “all out” to please you with free bulbs when your 
order is filled. 
We fully realize our responsibility of serving you in every 
helpful way and our wish to everyone is that you may enjoy 
the blessing of good health, the relaxation, contentment and 
happiness that goes with working in your yard and garden, 
this year and throughout years to come. 
Cordially and sincerely, 
FOLEY GARDENS 
