The Gladiolus Part 2

CHAPTER VII.

Cleaning and Grading.

When bulbs are taken up, it is necessary that they should be dried to some extent before the work of cleaning begins,--the large ones partially at least, and the small ones wholly, for reasons which will be explained hereafter.

When large bulbs are dug, the old ones that were planted adhere so firmly that a good deal of force is required to separate them. For this reason it is not economy to clean them at once, so we store them in shallow crates, to the depth of two or three inches, and let them dry.

They can then be filled in to the tops of the crates, which are four inches deep, and left until a convenient time for cleaning.

In two weeks after they are taken up, the older bulbs can be removed with a slight effort, but we reserve this work for stormy days. This is the way it is done: A number two sieve is placed upon a tight bushel basket, and filled with the bulbs to be cleaned. The old bulbs are taken off by hand and cast aside, carrying the roots with them, and the bulblets that still remain fall through the sieve into the basket below.

The cleaned bulbs are dropped into another basket and then stored in crates to await the time for grading. The bulblets are put away in a cool, damp place. Bulbs three-fourths of an inch or more in diameter are cleaned one at a time, as described, but smaller ones are treated differently. There is much waste matter connected with them, roots, bits of tops, and soil, and the work of cleaning them is done out of doors on windy days in order that the trash and dust may be blown away. This explains why small stock should be thoroughly dried before it is cleaned. The bulbs are placed on a table or platform where the wind can have free play, and pulled and twisted by handfuls, until the most of them are separated from the rubbish. Those that still remain are picked out, and the trash is pushed off from the table. The bulbs are then put into a fine sieve and the remaining dust is sifted out. This process usually brings to light the last remnants of dry roots, leaves, and husks, and these are disposed of by pouring the bulbs from one bushel basket to another in the wind. At one time I had this finishing work done on more than half a million small bulbs with an old-fashioned fanning mill, and it was done to perfection.

Grading.

After the bulbs are cured and cleaned, the next step is grading, or separating them into cla.s.ses according to size. This is absolutely necessary if the bulbs are to be sold, and almost as much so if they are to be planted. As to the sizes of the different grades, every grower seems to be a law unto himself. An effort has been made by the Society of American Florists to establish a uniform standard of division, and this will doubtless be accomplished in time. At present the most common arrangement of numbers and sizes seems to be about as follows:

First size (No. 1) 1-1/2 inches in diameter and up.

Second size (No. 2) 1-1/2 inches in diameter.

Third size (No. 3) 3/4-1 inch in diameter.

Fourth size (No. 4) 1/2-3/4 inch in diameter.

Fifth size (No. 5) all below 1/2 inch.

Numbers one, two, and three are considered regular blooming sizes, and are bought and sold by seedsmen. Number four bulbs will nearly all bloom, but they are seldom offered for sale, except to the trade. Number fives are not supposed to bloom at all, but a few of them will do so.

There is a great difference in varieties in this respect, some blooming much smaller than others.

Bulbs may be approximately graded by screening them through sieves with meshes of proper sizes, from an inch and a half down to half an inch, and this is the most speedy way of doing the work. The necessary correcting can be done by hand when counting them out for sale or preparing them for planting.

Crates.

Some allusions to these have been made in the foregoing pages, and it may be well to preface the subject of keeping the bulbs over winter by describing the receptacles in which they are stored.

I have used crates of two sizes. The larger ones are three feet by four, and four inches deep, with bottoms of lath running lengthwise and placed a quarter of an inch apart. Strips of 1x2-inch stuff are nailed across the corners, on both top and bottom, exactly opposite each other, so that they will come together and keep the crates apart for ventilation when piled one above another. The upper strips also serve as handles by which to lift the crates. They should be far enough from the corners so that bulbs can run out between when emptying the crates, and yet not so far as to make it difficult to take bulbs out from under them with a shovel. The ends of these corner pieces should be sawed beveling, so as not to project and be in the way. There is also a 2x2-inch strip nailed across the middle of the crate on the under side, to support the lath.

The smaller crates are half the size of the others, two feet by three, and four inches deep. The bottoms are tight, and three-eighths of an inch thick. The corner pieces are two inches wide and one inch thick. No strips are needed across the middle underneath.

The smaller crates are preferable for several reasons. First, they can be handled by one man while the larger ones, when filled, require two.

Second, the tight bottoms prevent any mixing of varieties, which may happen in using the larger crates by the bulblets dropping through from one to another. Third, the small crates can be easily and entirely emptied, while the large ones retain bulblets or very small bulbs in the s.p.a.ces between the lath, and when varieties are to be kept separate these must be carefully picked out. In storing mixed bulbs, or a large quant.i.ty of one variety, the last two objections do not hold, but crates containing kinds that should be kept pure cannot safely be placed one above another when the bottoms are slatted. It may be asked why the large crates are not made with tight bottoms. They have a capacity of two bushels each, or more, and when filled with damp bulbs fresh from the ground, they must have bottom ventilation in order to dry their contents. The small ones, holding only half as much, do not need the draft from below.

CHAPTER VIII.

Winter Storage.

An excellent way to keep blooming bulbs through the winter is to pack them in crates, and pile these in a cellar without artificial heat, where the mercury ranges from thirty-five to forty degrees in cold weather.

Small bulbs may be kept in the same way, but they should not be more than two or three inches deep in the crates. They settle into a more solid ma.s.s than large bulbs, and if too deep they are liable to start into growth. This should be carefully guarded against.

Small quant.i.ties of bulbs may be stored in half-bushel baskets, from two to four inches deep, according to size, and hung up in the cellar.

Bulblets may be packed in boxes or barrels without regard to depth. They do not need to be cured in the fall, like bulbs, as a little drying hardens the sh.e.l.ls in which they are enclosed to such an extent that many of the tiny shoots are unable to break through when the growing season comes. They should be packed away when taken off from the bulbs at digging or cleaning time, and a cool, damp place for keeping them is best. Some of them will sprout in storage, which, of course, is not to be desired, but it is better to lose the few that will grow too soon by dampness than the many that will be kept from growing at all by drying.

The ideal place for storing bulblets is a root cellar, or underground room not connected with any building, which is securely closed after the stock is put in, and not opened till spring. Here it is kept fresh and moist and perfectly safe from fire and frost. Another excellent way to preserve bulblets is to pack them in boxes and bury them in the ground, as our forefathers did potatoes and apples. They must be covered sufficiently to guard against any possible danger from freezing, and with this precaution they come out in fine condition at planting time.

When a few bulblets of some choice variety are to be kept by themselves, it is a good plan to wrap them in paraffin paper, and enclose them in a paper bag, which may be marked to show its contents.

Packing Bulbs for Shipment.

When bulbs are well cured, the chief danger in shipping is from frost, and this is much greater in transportation by freight than by express.

They are longer on the way, and more exposed to cold. However and whenever shipment is made, and whatever packages are used, whether boxes, barrels or baskets, they should be thoroughly lined with many thicknesses of paper to guard against possible harm. Paper is an excellent non-conductor of heat and cold, and packages well protected with it may be considered secure for fall or spring shipments, when a few degrees of frost are to be guarded against, but not extreme cold.

When bulbs are to go by freight in winter, every precaution should be taken to make them absolutely safe. The paper linings of the packages should be increased in thickness, and in addition to this some good packing material, as sawdust thoroughly dried, planer shavings, buckwheat chaff, or ground cork, should be mixed all through among the bulbs. This prevents the frost from entering. As an additional safeguard, the bulbs may be put into strong sacks, with some one of the materials before mentioned among them, the sacks packed into the box or barrel, and all crevices among them filled with straw, excelsior or paper. This mode of packing is especially suitable when several varieties are comprised in one order.

In shipping high-priced bulbs, it is sometimes advisable to pack them carefully in a box, and enclose this box in another a few inches larger every way, filling the s.p.a.ce between on all sides with dry sawdust. It is much the better way to make costly shipments in mild weather, if possible.

It seems hardly necessary to speak of sending bulbs by mail, but a few words may not be amiss. Almost the only danger in such cases is that of freezing on the ride with the rural carrier, and this can be guarded against in a great measure by using plenty of paper in wrapping, and buckwheat hulls for filling. It is better to pay postage on a little extra weight than to risk injury to the valuable goods enclosed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HALLEY]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CRACKER JACK]

[Ill.u.s.tration: GRETCHEN ZANG]

CHAPTER IX.

Growing from Seed.

There is great satisfaction in growing the finest gladioli that have ever been produced in all the world. The consciousness that one has the best obtainable gives pleasure, but raising seedlings of one's own, knowing that they are different from any others, that no two are exactly alike, and that among them may be one or more of the very finest, and ultimately finding this possibility realized, is one of the greatest delights in horticulture. One ounce of good seed will produce about three thousand bulbs, and among them will be found a large number of fine varieties. If the seed is from choice stock, with no common varieties near, most of the seedlings will be worth saving. So I advise every grower to raise seedlings. They will yield both pleasure and profit. Some years ago I bought all the seed that was offered by the pound in America and Europe, about thirty pounds, and no one but myself ever knew the satisfaction that came from that investment. At another time I was growing a bed of seedlings and the gra.s.shoppers cut them off at the ground early in the summer. I supposed that they were ruined and went to plant something else on the bed a week or two later, when, to my surprise, I found small bulbs, about the size of apple seeds. I saved them with great care, sixteen thousand in number, and planted them the next spring. They made a fine growth and nearly all bloomed the year following. The pleasure they gave, not only to myself, but to my friends, paid many fold for the time spent on them, and more than made up for the disappointment I had felt when I thought the gra.s.shoppers had destroyed them.

The gladiolus opens its first flower in the morning, and the work of going over a bed containing hundreds that have just bloomed for the first time, and marking the finest with tags upon which are inscribed a few characters that mean much to the owner, and almost nothing to anyone else, will give one an undercurrent of joy for the rest of the day.

Another special pleasure that comes to the grower of choice seedlings is that of naming one for a friend, and this pleasure has been mine a number of times. The most notable example of this is the May, and I fully expect that some of those which have scarcely been heard of as yet will become equally as popular as that well-known variety.

In growing seedlings, it is best to use land that is nearly or quite level, so that it cannot wash. The soil should be thoroughly pulverized, and enriched by the use of some complete commercial fertilizer scattered over the surface at the rate of six or seven pounds to the square rod, and well stirred in. Then make drills twelve inches apart, from one to two inches wide, and half an inch deep. These drills should be laid out cross-wise of the bed, and may be made by gently pressing a narrow strip of board into the mellow earth. Sow the seed thick enough to cover the bottom of the drill, and sprinkle over it fine earth to the depth of three-fourths of an inch. This should be pressed down with the foot or a roller, so that it will be only half an inch thick over the seeds.