September  13,  1900. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
249 
Gladiolus  Colvillei. 
The  more  I  grow  Gladiolus  Colvillei  The  Bride  the  greater  it  is 
appreciated.  Year  after  year  we  have  had  as  many  pots  of  bulbs  as 
we  could  possibly  find  accommodation  for,  but  the  supply  has  never- 
iheless  on  no  single  occasion  been  equal  to  the  demand,  I  have  tried 
Thol  Tulips,  but  these  are  simply  to  afford  flowers  for  cutting.  I  do  not 
find  that  they  thrive  so  well  in  the  boxes  as  they  do  in  pots,  of  which 
32’s  always  give  the  best  results.  This  seems  to  point  to  the  fact  that 
they  require  a  fairly  sound  quantity  of  soil,  and  I  make  them  a  thoroughly 
good  compost  of  the  best  loam,  some  decayed  manure,  and  coarse 
sand.  I  have  on  occasions  further  enriched  the  mixture  with  artificial 
manures,  but  the  benefits  derived  therefrom  have  been  scarcely 
commensurate  with  the  cost,  and  I  have  stopped  the  practice.  Instead 
Fig.  6G.— gladiolus  COLVILLEI. 
several  of  the  new  early  flowering  Gladioli,  but  useful  and  beautiful  as 
several  of  them  undoubtedly  are,  and  especially  Sutton’s  Queen  of 
Pinks,  I  must  still  swear  allegiance  to  the  old  favourite  which  has 
done  me  such  excellent  service.  Hundreds  may  be  purchased  at  very 
small  cost,  and  I  do  not  think  I  have  grown  another  bulbous  plant  that 
has  given  such  an  excellent  return  for  the  outlay  and  the  labour 
involved.  I  grow  a  certain  number  in  large  fiO-pots,  and  the  remainder, 
and  by  far  the  larger  proportion,  in  32’s.  A  few  dozens  find  accommo¬ 
dation  in  shallow  boxes,  the  same  as  Roman  Hyacinths  and  Duo  Van 
of  this  I  thoroughly  drain  the  pots,  use  a  quite  porous  soil,  and  then  as 
the  plants  are  in  full  vigour  I  feed  them  with  liquid  manure  made  from 
any  available  material,  never  applying  the  same  sort  twice  in 
succession.  After  potting  the  corms  I  treat  them  precisely  the  same 
as  the  remainder  of  my  stock  of  bulbs,  exercising  care  that  the  foliage 
does  not  become  weak  and  thin  through  being  left  over-long  in  the 
fibre  bed.  Forcing  is  done  successionally  and  very  gently,  the 
temperature  never  exceeding  60°,  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  I  consider 
about  5°  too  high. — G.  Lingard. 
