Chapter 17

How to Keep a Collection Vigorous and Well Balanced.

The gladiolus, like other flowering plants, shows the effects of continued neglect or ill usage in diminished vigor and inferior bloom. This is not saying that a variety will "go back" to some ancestral sort, or that it will lose its individuality, but it will become puny and unsatisfactory. This deterioration is principally due to mismanagement, and can be counteracted by a change of methods. Suppose a fine, conical bulb is planted. If it meets with no misfortune it will produce a perfect spike of flowers, and perhaps a dozen or twenty pods of seed. When taken up in the fall, the bulb is almost certain to be small and flat, on account of having exhausted its vitality in blooming and seed-bearing, and if it yields any bulblets they will probably be so diminutive as to be thought not worth saving. No amount of skill could get much out of that bulb the second year.

There are two ways to bring it up to its former vigor. First: plant the bulb the next spring under the most favorable circumstances, give it plenty of plant food and the best of care, provide support for the foliage, cut the spike as soon as possible, and when the bulb is taken up it will be large and solid, and ready to do energetic work the following year. The second, and better way, of restoring a variety that has become exhausted, is to save the bulblets, however tiny they may be, pack them in damp sand, and store them in a cool place over winter. In the spring, peel them carefully, and plant according to the directions given in the chapter on "Peeling Bulblets." Give good culture, and the outcome will be a crop of blooming bulbs, and most likely a fair yield of bulblets.

There is another difficulty that besets some lovers of this beautiful flower who take pains to procure fine collections, and give them the best of care, according to their knowledge. In a few years many of their choice varieties seem to have dwindled away to almost nothing, or to have disappeared entirely, while they have a burdensome surplus of some others. They wonder why this is so, and some become convinced that the gladiolus will in time revert to some original species. Nearly all such cases may be accounted for by considering that some varieties multiply very much faster than others, both by bulblets and the formation of new bulbs. If one bulb produces a hundred bulblets, another ten, and another one--or perhaps none,--it is easy to foresee what will happen in a few years.

Another thing to be taken into account is that the grower sometimes divides his treasures with his friends, and in so doing he is liable to give away the one bulb that does not multiply, thus losing that variety from his stock. He may dispose of a number in this way and, meanwhile, those that increase rapidly are fast taking possession of his collection. There are ways of guarding against this situation. First, when varieties are found to have many bulblets, save only enough to keep the stock in balance, and throw away the rest. By being watchful and persevering in this course, much of the difficulty in question can be avoided. Second, if some varieties get the start, and become too numerous, mark them as they come into bloom, with cheap tags, or by some other device, and take them up separately in the fall. Several varieties can be "marked out" at the same time in this way.