A dictionary of modern gardening - University Library

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GL A 250 GL A
done growings Tor the season, care
' have
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are freely supplied with water once or
twice (as the season nnay require) just must be taken not to dry the soil in the
before they begin to expand their first pans too quickly or too much ; for the
flowers. Care must be taken, however, young bulbs, being very small, are apt
not to water them overhead. to become much exausted, and fre-
" The bulbs to be taken up about qiiently perish if kept very dry the first
the end of October, or as soon as the i
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winter. They should be, if possible,
stems and leaves become brown or placed in some cool, dry situation,
damaged by the frost. They must be where they are secure from frost. In
well dried, and placed in some situa- the spring they should be again placed
in a green-house or warm pit, and,
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tion secure from frost or damp until
the next spring, when they must be di- when fairly started, they should be
vided, and again treated as before, carefully removed into fresh pans or
The large bulbs will also produce pots, being rather a richer soil than
numerous offsets round their root-end ; that used for the seeds, planting them
but these are of little value, for they still rather thickly in the pots or pans,
will be two or three years before they and keeping them shut up close and
flower; and as every flowering bulb rather moist for a few days, until they
planted in the spring produces three begin to grow again, after which treat
or four bulbs of sufficient size to bloom them as before, and encourage them to
next season, from the crown of the old grow as long as possible in the autumn,
one, there is always enough for all then rest them as before.
purposes. The plant also flowers free- spring they may be potted
The next
in smaller
ly ; but the small bulbs and the seed- pots, and treated like the Gladiolus
lings will be so long before they flower, cardinalis, when many of them will
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that they are not worth the trouble of flower." Gard. Chron.
raising, except for the sake of obtain- GLASS is the best agent employed
jng new varieties." Gard. Chron. by the gardener to exclude the cold,
" Gladiolus ramosissimus is the next whilst the light is admitted to his plants
most beautiful
in pots or in
these hardier
kind for growing either which are natives of hotter climates
a bed. The bulbs of than that in which he cultivates them,
kinds should be taken Now that the excise-duty is removed
up every two years, divided, and re- from glass, the gardener is enabled to
planted, as they will not flower so employ the best, and a thicker kind
finely if left too long in one place. than formerly, when the duty was high
"They require a rich soil, made in proportion to the good quality and
rather free by adding a little sand to it weight. Anxiety to obtain the best
when the bulbs are being planted. By glass for hot-houses, &c., is every way
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this treatment nearly all the cape gladi- ;
oli may be made to flower beautifully,
and far finer and better than if retained
but the benefit sought for is
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laudable
frustrated if it be not constantly well
cleansed. The best glass, if dirty,
in pots. They are easily increased by allows fewer rays of light to pass
offsets or by seeds ; but the latter way
is rather tedious, and only worth re-
through than interior glass kept bright.
A thorough cleansing should be given
sorting to for the sake of raising new
varieties. When this is intended, the
both to the outside and inside twice
annually, during the first weeks of
seed should be sown about the end of February and of October, and a third
February, in pans filled with a mixture cleansing, on the outside only, at the
of sandy peat, and loam, and leaf- end of June. In proportion to the demould.
The seeds should be planted ficiency of light does the plant under
about half an inch deep in the soil, and glass become, in the gardener's phrasethe
pans placed in a green-house.— ology, drawn,- that is, its surface of
They will soon vegetate, and require leaves becomes unnaturally extended,
little trouble, for the first season, ex- in the vain effort to have a sufficient
cept watering and keeping free from elaboration of the sap effected by means
slugs and weeds, taking care, how- of a large surface exposed to a dimiever,
that they are kept growing as nished light, for which a less surface
vigorously and as long as possible by would have been sufficient if the light
freely supplying them with water du- were more intense. The plant with
ling the growing season. When they ] this enlarged surface of leaves becomes
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