Evening star., 1938-07-16

admirably lend itself to the decorate
where displays Of flowers are predomin
In the garden, Of course, we OBJ
what we term the growing season.
They are beginning to come into their
own at the present time, but II the
planting of the corns Is spread over a
period, say from 10 days to two weeks
apart, bloom may be had throughout
the summer.
The florists, by the process of
forcing the corms indoors, give us
wonderful spikes of gladioluses during
pretty much the entire year.
Genera of the iris family, the gladi-
olus may be recognized by its strong,
swordlike leaves and its funnel-shaped
flowers upon strong spike which at
tains height of to feet and more.
The gladiolus Is a native Of South
Africa and in its native state would
hardly be recognized compared to the
introductions Of the present time.
Great credit should be given to sew
eral growers located in New York, in
the vicinity Of Long Island, for the ex-
tensive work they carried on, about
1910 to 1850, in breeding, resulting In
the almost enormous size and the va
ried color range we find in this flower
today.
OUR modern gladiolus may be con-
sidered quite young, as it was only
q little over half a century ago that
the large type of plant with a much
improved color range and an increase
in the size of the flowers was produced
Recently several new. species have been
discovered In their native haunts in
the vicinity of Victoria Falls, South
Africa, and our modern hybridizers are
working with them to obtain even
better varieties than we now have.
Perhaps If you know such varieties
as Golden Dream, Ming Toy. Orange
Queen. Souvenir and others of the yell
lows, you may be interested to know
that one Of their original parents
probably was @. primulinus, a very
small, hooded-type yellow In the
early work with this species the hooded
nature Of the parent appeared very
prominently in the progeny. but as the
work Of the breeders progressed this
characteristic practically disappeared.
We speak of the body Of the iris as
rhizome, Of the tulip and narcissus
as bulbs, the peony as root. We refer
to the gladiolus as CORN. The corms
are usually sold by size, ranging from
the tiny cormels (about the size Of
a large peal to IA inches and up in
width. You may be quite convinced
that the latter size will be sure bloom
ers.
IN THE garden the culture is quite
simple. The corms are tender
and. as they are not deeply planted,
cannot be left in the ground over
winter. Planted out in the garden as
soon IS danger of frost Is over. they
require soil that has been thor
oughly spaded and fertilized. Proper
spacing should be about s inches apart
and the CORN should be planted from
2 to inches deep. Like every other
Towering plant in the garden, they
do not like to be in competition with
weeds and should be watered when
necessary.
From 70 to 90 days is the required
time from planting to bloom, and, as
stated before, for continuity of bloom
corms should be planted every 10 days
or so. For house decoration long
spikes should be cut in the morning,
after one or two of the blossoms have
opened. A change Of water each day
will insure every blossom opening, CIV
ing you the beauty OF the flowers for
several days.
The increase Of your stock Is OBJ
tanned by the formation of several
cormels under the old CORN you plant
ed in the spring. The old CORN, If it is
OF that size classed by the trade as
first size" az inches and up), will
probably wither and disappear during
the growing season, q new CORN being
produced with its family of various
sized cormels.
These cormels, if planted out in the
f-~AAo oAA AGA NCotCu Vic lAll, Will
in two or three years have attained
the size of q first size" CORN and
produce flowers.
HE corms should be gathered be-
fore frost In the fall and the tops
cut of. They should be stored indoors
during the winter. Remember tina,
high temperature and lack of mois-
ture will cause them to wither or
shrivel and you will lose your stock.
In recent years the gladiolus thrip
has caused considerable damage to
stock. Controls that are helpful be-
gin by cleaning and burning all de-
bris In the fall. Ground that you are
to use for the next spring planting
should be broken up during the win
ter. Store your corms for one or two
months In paper bags to which has
been added naphthalene flakes in the
proportion of ounce to about 100
corms. A good foliage spray during
the growing season consists of l
rounded tablespoon paris green, q