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Varied and beautiful as the Gandavensis hybrids or "French seedlings" of the last generation were and some have never been excelled intense and pleasing shades of red were strangely lacking, when the predominance of psittacinus blood in the strain is considered.
It was eagerly welcomed by breeders of the day, among others the accomplished French hybridizer, Mons. Souchet, of Fontainebleu, who really laid the foundation of the modern Gandavensis strain, the basis of all that is best in the summer-blooming section. The predominating types of the finest Gandavensis varieties, however, retain few of the characteristics of psittacinus.
These species are closely allied to Psittacinus, but yellow, green and purplish shades, oddly marked and striped, appear in the offspring. Some are curious and attractive, but possess little value from the standpoint of the commercial grower.
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.
The writer's experience is that present-day authentic hybrids of psittacinus and cardinalis do not resemble Gandavensis, while the issue of psittacinus x oppositiflorus closely reproduces Gandavensis as it is found in old gardens.
The early history of the gladiolus is an instance. The first crosses are recorded to have been made between Gladiolus psittacinus and G. cardinalis, and between their hybrid, which is still known under the name of gandavensis and the purpureo-auratus. But other authors give other lines of descent.
In 1840 G. Gandavensis was raised in Belgium from seed of G. psittacinus, an African species supposed to be pollinated with Cardinalis, but more, likely with G. oppositiflorus, which the progeny of Gandavensis more closely resembles. From 1845 until 1880 Gandavensis seedlings or "French Hybrids" held full sway in gardens.
The most popular varieties of the day, such as May, Augusta, and Shakespeare, have little resemblance to psittacinus and practically none to cardinalis, but exhibit strongly the main characteristics of G. oppositiflorus, an old white-and-rose, many-flowered species, often thought to have been the real parent of Gandavensis, instead of cardinalis.
Summer Blooming Species. Our popular garden and commercial varieties are, with scarcely an exception, developments of strong-growing and relatively late-blooming species found wild in South Africa. The chief of these is G. psittacinus, native of Natal, but cultivated in Europe since 1830.
Eleven years later a seedling appeared in the famous Van Houtte Nurseries, Ghent, Belgium, thought to be a hybrid between psittacinus and G. cardinalis, the latter a tall scarlet flowered species or variety of uncertain origin, known to have been cultivated as early as 1785.
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