Small Talk 
The 1954 growing season found us “treading on new 
ground”, so to speak; that is, we were growing our glads 
on our own farm which we had purchased the previous 
fall. The analysis of our soil last spring disclosed that 
it was deficient in almost every element necessary to 
produce a crop. However, we set to work at once to 
build it up, and everything considered, the flowers we 
raised and the bulbs we harvested were more than we 
expected under the circumstances. There was a lot of 
unbearable hot weather to plague us, too, but unlike the 
southern sections of our state and parts of other mid- 
western states we were fortunate in getting rains to 
help us weather the heat wave. 
We got practically no rain in September when we could 
have used it to good advantage for bulb growth, but 
the month of October more than made up for this de- 
ficiency. The week-end of the 9th & 10th brought us 
an official rainfall of 6% inches with some Chicago 
suburbs reporting up to 11 inches. This was the great- 
est rainfall ever recorded in the history of the Chicago 
Weather Bureau. 
A gully through one of our glad fields became a rag- 
ing torrent that swept some of our bulbs out of the 
ground and buried still others under 8 inches of silt. 
Aside from the actual loss of some bulbs and the loss 
of identity of still others due te washed out labels our 
greatest damage was the loss of valuable top soil. 
In spite of these adversities dealt us by Mother Na- 
ture we can look back on our first year here as the 
hardest (we hope) but successful, nevertheless. All 
of which proves that Little Glads can take it when the 
going is tough. We showed them in 4 shows here in 
Illinois and at the Central International at Rochester, 
Minn. Here are some of the special attainments they 
brought us. 
At LeRoy we won show sweepstakes with the showing 
only of 100/200’s. We had the best miniature with Ito, 
the best small with Frohsinn, and the best 3-spike small 
with Pirouette. Our Babs seedling, which we have reg- 
istered under the name of “Trinket” and which is sched- 
uled for introduction in 1956, was Champion 3-spike 
Seedling and Grand Champion 3-spike of the show. 
At Rochester we received an Award of Commendation 
on Trinket and our 1955 introduction Mellow Fellow. 
Our 1954 introduction, Bambi, was best R.I. 200, while 
we captured best 3-spike 200 with Aria and best 3-spike 
R.I. 200 with Driven Snow. Our commercial display of 
miniature and small type glads received much favorable 
comment. 
At Momence our 1954 introduction, Zig Zag, was judged 
best Recent Introduction. 
At our State Show in Springfield Zig Zag again cap- 
tured best R.I., and again we won show sweepstakes 
and the coveted May-Hopkins Memorial Trophy. 
At Chicago Zig Zag really came through with flying 
colors to take best R.I. and Grand Champion spike of 
the show. Our 1955 introduction, Miss Precision, scored 
89 to capture the Hipple-Connell plaque for Best Single 
Spike Seedlings of the show. Our commercial display 
featuring 100/200’s in artistic arrangements fabricated 
by Mrs. Raymond Rohde, well known lecturer and teach- 
er of the art of flower arranging, was the talk of the 
show. 
We realize that many of our customers are not inter- 
ested in exhibiting at shows, and while the miniature 
and small type glad is demonstrating its worth in this 
respect more convincingly each year, we must not lose 
sight of the fact that the ease of its culture makes it a 
welcome subject in any garden, and its adaptability to 
arrangement use, particularly in this era of the diminu- 
tive modern home with confining rooms and low ceilings, 
is not equaled by any other flower. 
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