Gladiolus questions

Hi,
my Gladioli went in this year way too late as the new border wasn't done until late May and I found the bulbs I hoarded from Wilkos in the garage in June.

The foliage is however perfect in where they are growing and some buds are forming now so I might get some flowers this summer.

Now the Gardeners Question Time

Will the bulbs have had enough time to feed to be worth lifting and saving for next summer? Or am I better off buying new ones from Wilko's 70% sale as usual

When should I re-plant them? I have this great plan to put early tulips in that spot and once they are done, replace with Gladioli. Usually my Great Plans massively backfire so any guidance would be appreciated

And what about staggered planting? Geoff Hamilton tips us to plant some Gladiolus bulbs every couple of weeks to prolong the flowering period, but how is that done in practice? I can't really put the first lot in and then dig around them to get fresh bulbs in without disturbing the growing ones can I?

Thanks for advice, I'm a Gladiolus virgin

 

What type of soil do you have?

For many years I had a professional grower of gladys growing alongside me.

 

The main soil is hard clay, but the border is lovingly double dug with rotted manure and compost. The position gets full sun in the summer from 10am until about 4pm.

The plants in there at the moment look very healthy so hopefully the site is ok for them.

 

Our local glady expert grew on heavy clay. They would be left in the ground over 2 winters, and flower for 3 summers before they deteriorated to such an extent that would require a fresh planting. Each spring he would rotorvate the area with 3 year old corms and replant thickly with new corms. The newly planted ones would produce a later crop of flowers and extend his cutting season.

He would never bother lifting any, just buy another car load each year when he'd prepared the ground for them. The corms left in over winter(s) were shallow rotorvated over earlybefore the shoots were close enough to the surface to be damaged. There is a desease that ruins the flowers that would need spraying out to save the blooms, but I think it only occured rarely, and I'm not sure if the corms needed replacing after the flowers were cut.

Quite a difference between growing thousands of them for cut flowers and in garden borders, but there might be something of interest there.