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The Van Houtte seedling, named Gandavensis in honor of the city of its origin, was so superior to psittacinus as to cause the latter to at once go out of cultivation. Gandavensis made a great sensation in its time and is still the best representative of the old-time gaudy red-and-yellow garden gladiolus, or corn flag.
For years and years she had planted flowers -tulips and hyacinths and poppies and lilies and gladiolus and larkspur and phlox and ladyslipper there had always been a riot of color. She had an old gardener, and she would stand over him, leaning on her silver-topped ebony cane, with a lace scarf covering her hair, and would point out the places to plant things.
Finally they set off, and it was a sight to see the long procession of dry-land Tortoises heavily laden with savants, scientific instruments, Glow-Worms and Fire-Flies for signal service, provisions, Ants and Tumble-Bugs to fetch and carry and delve, Spiders to carry the surveying chain and do other engineering duty, and so forth and so on; and after the Tortoises came another long train of ironclads stately and spacious Mud Turtles for marine transportation service; and from every Tortoise and every Turtle flaunted a flaming gladiolus or other splendid banner; at the head of the column a great band of Bumble-Bees, Mosquitoes, Katy-Dids, and Crickets discoursed martial music; and the entire train was under the escort and protection of twelve picked regiments of the Army Worm.
It is small and inconspicuous, but yellow, and is said to transmit its color to all its seedings. It may be the means of supplying what has been long striven for, a good yellow. The gladiolus of my earliest recollection, which was found in some gardens about the middle of the nineteenth century, was dull red mingled with greenish yellow, appearing red at a distance.
The country between the Coanza and Pungo Andongo is covered with low trees, bushes, and fine pasturage. In the latter, we were pleased to see our old acquaintances, the gaudy gladiolus, Amaryllis toxicaria, hymanthus, and other bulbs in as flourishing a condition as at the Cape. It is surprising that so little has been done in the way of agriculture in Angola.
In the garden that second week the poet's eyed narcissus disappeared out the long grass at the edge of the zigzag path, and wild gladiolus, slender and rose-coloured, came in their stead, white pinks bloomed in the borders, filing the whole place with their smoky-sweet smell, and a bush nobody had noticed burst into glory and fragrance, and it was a purple lilac bush.
Such is the case with the gladiolus and the tulips. In other cases the original types have not been obtained from the wild state but from the cultures of other countries. The dahlias were cultivated in Mexico when first discovered by Europeans, and the chrysanthemums have been introduced from the old gardens of Japan.
If the flowers are not wanted, the spikes can be cut as soon as they are high enough to escape the foliage, and this is still better. When the gladiolus is grown as a field crop, there are so many tops together that they support each other to some extent. When grown in small areas, it is a good plan to stretch wires along the rows about a foot from the ground, and tie the stalks to them.
Gladiolus growers have different objects in view in carrying on their work, and it is managed according to the results desired. He who raises bulbs for sale uses every effort to increase his stock and to cause the bulbs to make the greatest possible growth during the season.
Two ladies whose voices were strange to him had stopped as so many people almost daily stopped to admire the garden of the parsonage. One of them expressed her pleasure in general terms. Said the other "My husband declares those dahlias alone couldn't be matched for thirty dollars, and that some of those gladiolus must have cost three or four dollars apiece.
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