DUKE NAMES GLADIOLUS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 49, 25 January 1935, Page 9

DUKE NAMES GLADIOLUS.

VARIETY PROPAGATED AT CHRISTCHURCH. CHRISTCHURCH, Jan. 23. Mr K. E. Wiltshire, of Avonsidc, is the proud propagator of the 10th llussars gladiolus—so named by the Duke of Gloucester because, lie said, it was so line and upstanding that it reminded him of his regiment. It is now a third year seedling, and in colour tlie flowers are a sienna orange with a chestnut blotch. The flowers on one specimen measured 7!in across and there were 11 blooms perfectly opened at one time. A peculiarity of the gladiolus is that its antlers arc a bright gieon. They boar no pollen, and the stigma has no fertility, so that the flowers, as they do not seed, last for a long time. The gladiolus is propagated by bulbs, and as the spread of these is not rapid it is unlikely to become common. It was when the Duke was at “Otaliuna,” tbo home ol Sir R. Heaton Rhodes, that he saw a specimen bloom of the new variety. Ho was so impressed by the uppoarance ol the flower that when he was told it was unnamed, and the suggestion was made that he might cure to name it, he decided upon the appropriate name of “10th Hussars.”