Chapter 18

Commencing in the Business.

If one desires to grow the gladiolus commercially, there are several ways of making a beginning, and it is well to have a clearly defined plan. The grower can enter upon the work with very little outlay by commencing with seed. Only choice seed should be used. The first year's product will average about the size of peas. With extra pains, many of these could be brought to small blooming size, but it is better to keep them below that limit. The next year they will all grow to first and second sizes and the bulbs will be perfect in form and full of energy. Of these there will be no two alike, and such bulbs are generally in demand. Some will be of superior merit, and many good. Each purchaser will find at least a few that he will prize. By sowing seed every year, the grower will always have fresh stock coming on, and if careful to use only seed of high grade, he will establish a reputation as a producer of fine seedlings. He can, in time, make arrangements for growing seed himself, and thus save the expense of buying, besides enjoying the satisfaction of knowing its excellence.

Another way of starting is by purchasing small stock. This has the advantage of making salable bulbs the first year, also quantities of bulblets, but there is another side to the question, which is less encouraging. If the stock is simply common mixed, which is about the only grade offered for sale, the grower is likely to find that a good part of it is such as he can take no pride in, and he will be under the necessity of beginning soon to weed out the undesirable varieties. The same difficulty will re-appear in the crop grown from the bulblets. This method involves more expense than would appear at first thought, and is likely to be rather unsatisfactory as to quality in the end. If small stock of high excellence could be bought, it would be the perfection of a start for a beginner, but it is very seldom obtainable. Every grower knows that bulbs the size of peas are far more prolific of bulblets than those of the same variety two inches in diameter. Accordingly, he sells the large ones, which bring good prices, but make little increase, and retains the small ones, which would yield only trifling returns if sold, but are of great value as multipliers of stock.

Still another and very good way of beginning in the business is to buy blooming bulbs of fine named sorts, cultivate them separately, and sell them by name. He who adopts this plan does not need many varieties. It is better to purchase few, and a larger number of each. If he selects those that are in good demand, he is pretty sure to find ready sale for all that he can raise. He is not likely to have too many of the May or Augusta, nor of those newer and more expensive favorites, America and Princeps. This last method, and the one first described may be combined to good advantage.

If one wishes to commence growing flowers for market, he may start with seed, provided he can afford the time, or he may buy blooming bulbs, either mixed or named. In the latter case he should look out for a liberal proportion of light colors, as they are usually more salable than darker ones, though of late, good reds are rapidly gaining in popularity. Some growers raise mostly fine white and light varieties, and their flowers are in demand even when the market is full of common stock.

Finally, whatever the grower's objects may be in his work, and whatever methods he may adopt in carrying it on, he will find plenty of room for the exercise of his own judgment and tact, after he has read and pondered all that he can find in print in regard to gladiolus culture.

APPENDIX

By

DR. W. VAN FLEET