The Little Glads

By Kent Higgins

The little glads - with florets not over 3-1/2 inches across - are coming back into favor. Formerly shows glorified the towering 6-foot gladiolus spikes with 6- to 7-inch florets to an extent that made it well nigh impossible for a small glad to win a ribbon or any sort of recognition from the judges. Recently. however, the different sizes of glads have been more clearly defined.

Show committees are now giving separate listings to the little glads, so that they compete only with each other. Showmen are realizing they can win valuable points toward sweepstakes trophies with specimens of little glads as well as larger ones. Previously, the little ones were grown almost exclusively for use in arrangements.

With the demand for little glads almost doubled, many fanciers have searched diligently to rediscover and revive some of the worth-while small varieties which had become almost extinct. Fortunately, several have been found and stocks rebuilt. Hybridizers, too, have become increasingly interested in breeding new and better varieties of small glads.

Small glads are beautiful, and beauty is not to be measured with a yardstick. Few people will contend that a hollyhock is superior to a delphinium just because it is taller. So a giant gladiolus is not necessarily more beautiful than a small one.

You will find the same wide range of colors in the small glads as in the large ones - all colors, in fact, except true blue. There are light, medium and dark shades, bicolors, blends and blotched varieties. One color, green or chartreuse, is found only in the miniature and small glads. The species glad, Gladiolus dracocephalus, is a miniature with tubular florets of mottled green.

Little glads have diversity of floret type and spike formation. Those who like the primulinus or hooded type of floret will find this type most prominent, in the small glads.

This is not the only type of floret little glads have; some of the most intense ruffling of florets is to be found in the little ones.

Another point in favor of little glads is that most of them have a grace and daintiness of spike, an effect produced by an airy wide spacing of the florets. This form of florescence is totally out of place in larger glads, but in small ones it is a decided enhancement. Not all small glads are of this informal habit, however.

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