Gladiolus Bulbs coming back!?
lennox sinclaire (8a)
6 years ago
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Question re Gladiolus Bulbs
Comments (14)grassy - the bloom stalk of glads can be pretty tall, especially if the corms you have are the grandifloras. When I've planted them in the past, I've put them with anything I have in the gardens, anywhere there's space. After blooming, the swordlike foliage is quite nice on its own and really doesn't need hiding behind other things. One thing though, plant them in a bunch/group - not all lined up like marching soldiers (nothing looks worse). I plant mine a little deeper than the recommended 6 inches - this helps to keep them from flopping over because of the heavy bloom stalk. I'll plant 7 - 9 of them together in the same spot with barely 2 inches between corms. This also helps to keep them from falling over without having to use stakes. I also cut down the bloom stalk once the last floret goes - the spent stalk looks pretty sad. I've also grown them for use as cut flowers for the house - sometimes they can be more impressive in a vase than out in the garden....See Morehard bulb science to back up conventional bulb wisdom?
Comments (5)Science can sometimes get in the way of things we'd like to do, but if you have a whole lot of daffs - do your own "science" and cut down the foliage on a patch of them, mark the patch with a little tag or something, and see what comes up next season. If they come back as good as the ones left to go through their normal die-back routine, you've proven - at least to yourself in your particular growing conditions - that the bulbs suffered no harm in the short run. Doing this for several years in a row might find your bulbs shrinking away to the point that eventually nothing comes up. This is probably one of the tests the experts at the Universities have tried in assembling their body of knowledge. Digging up and measuring the size of the bulbs that have had the foliage prematurely cut against bulbs that have not would be another test. If you're familiar with Google - type in cutting daffodil foliage and sift through over 100,000 hits explaining the benefits of both science and convention. The science has been done and it's out there....See MoreGladiolus and Calla Lily bulb storage
Comments (11)Okay, there are two types of bloomers in the Calla famiy. The aethiopicas (usually white and green blooms) grow their foliage throughout the winter and bloom in the spring. The speckled leaved and colored bloomed ones (in general) go dormant in the winter, come up in the spring, and bloom in early summer. They all like very moist, even boggy soil. My experience with them is it can take several years in the ground for them to settle in and put on enough growth to bloom. Most of the aethiopicas like shade to partial shade, at least as far south as I am. The others like more sun, though I have them in partial shade too. As far as the need to divide them, I really don't know, except that I have an elderly friend who grows the most beautiful aethiopicas you ever saw in a patch that she says has been there more than fifty years without ever having been divided. That makes it sound to me that they don't NEED to be divided, though they obviously can be, in order to increase plantings. You don't say what kind you have, where they are planted, or how long you've had them. All of these things are major factors....See MoreGladiolus bulbs saved for 2 years?
Comments (5)Lots of people here in NJ leave them in the ground, and they come back. I used to dig mine up, only because the winter of 95/96 (I believe; the year we were buried under snow), the fall of 96 I had only foliage; no blooms. I finally got sick and tired of digging them up, so I left them in the ground. Of course, they never returned, and I had ALOT of glads......See Morelennox sinclaire (8a)
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