Gladioli twin bulbs... what to do?

Hi

I only joined this forum today and I’m asking my first question already! We had a poor showing of our gladioli this year compared to last year and the year before. I was told by a neighbour they must be ‘congested’ and I’m supposed to dig them up each year, separate them and store them over winter till spring. As she hasn’t grown glads for years she couldn’t remember precisely what I was supposed to do. So I watched utube vids and set too… so far so good.

I’m currently drying out 41 dug up glad bulbs. But many of them are co-joined twins, and even triplet bulbs. I can easily see were the old corm is on all of them (which I haven’t removed yet on any of them.) But what do I do with the twin/triplet ones? Do I leave them as is? Do I try and separate the co-joined bulbs? If so, how and when? Do I try and twist them apart, or maybe cut them apart? Do I do this now, or in spring?... I haven’t a clue!

I’ve photographed 4 of my bulbs, and numbered them for reference, to demonstrate what I mean. 1) is a single bulb, single stem and old corm clearly visible. 2) & 3) are ‘Twins’ with old corm nestled between them, with each bulb having its own stem. and 4) is a triplet.

I dug them up a week ago, and really need to know what to do with first lot first before I dig up the rest.

Any help with my glad twin/triplet problem would be really appreciated.

 

@JWK

Many thanks for the info, JWK. I was really worried that if I twisted/cut them apart I might injure/kill them and have no glads to plant out next year, apart from the single ones. Most of the ones I've dug up so far are twins, with a fair few triplets too. When I watching the utubes vids (six in total) they all demonstrated with single bulbs, so I was very confused when most of mine were twins, as these didn't exist on the utube vids I saw. I'm glad that others must have them too. I was beginning to wonder if I had a garden full of mutant gladioli.

 

@JWK

Oh dear... I replied to you but my reply somehow dissapeared. I must've pressed the wrong button or something. Thank you for your quick response, I was worried I might kill them if I tried twisting/cutting them apart. I feel more confident now. 2nd time lucky in trying to reply to you... here goes

 

@JWK

I left my twin/triplet gladioli bulbs to dry out a bit more then did as you suggested. After removing the old corm, I gently twisted them apart, and they came apart dead easily. From 41 dug up bulbs I now have 68, plus about 20 cormlets I've decided to overwinter. I had so many cormlets that I ended up chucking the smallest away in my compost bin. I still have about 50 more glads to dig up. But now the first batch are packed away in a cardboard box with newspaper, I can get on with the rest. If the remaining bulbs are anything like the last lot, I've a sneaking suspicion that I'm going to be giving away a lot of glad bulbs come springtime... when the decidious trees start to leaf, of course!
I even ended up with a heart-shaped bulb, as you can see from the photo I took for you to show how successful your info was. This photo shows just a small amount of my seperated gladioli twin/triplet haul; plus the cormlets I'm keeping.


Many thanks for your advice. I really needed it and much appreciate it.

 

@JWK

I thought they looked rather good too, which surprised me as they looked a right manky mess when I first dug them up. But once you get into the swing of sorting them out its not much of a hassle, and I won't have to buy any more next year. I only ended up with so many because I kept planting new ones to replace the old ones as I didn't know they replaced/reproduced themselves... you live and learn!
I have another glad question to ask, but I'll post that later this evening in the general bit of the forum. The sun's shining now, so no more excuses not to get out in the garden and dig up the rest of the glads.