Gladioli

I suppose it depends on your soil whether you use sand or not but I've always just done what your work colleague suggests. I've had good results this way and they're already popping through this year again.

 

Wife always just sticks them in the ground, then lightly flicks a bit of surrounding soil over them so they are loosely covered. They always come up.

 

A chap next to me on the allotments some years ago grew glad's for showing and he always put them on a layer of sand,his idea was that they hate wet feet so the sand kept them drained and also helped with the production of the young corm's.He would dig a hole with a trowel about 6"deep and put about 2"sand in the bottom of the hole,then place a stout can into the hole then place the corm on the sand and fill in.

 

fat controller,Re your post on seed etc . You will find that when you lift you corm's after they have finished growing they will have produced some small corm's on the new corm,( the new corm forms on top of the old corm,throw the old corm away,) Keep these frost free untill the next year then sow them in a shallow trench.It will take around 3 to 4 years to get good size corms.

 

Sorry that should have read stout cane to hold them upright

 

Yes,after you have cut the flower off,leave the cut part in the ground untill it dies of,then lift out of the ground,throw away the old corm which you will see under the new corm.If your glad's are named varieties then keep your small corm's seperate and sow next year in pots.

 

They don't have to be lifted - as I said mine from previous years which I leave in are already poking through. But if you want to propagate them then yes lift them and gather the baby corms. Don't think they form clumps, at least mine never have.

 

A bed of sand won't kill them no matter what the soil. I wouldn't lift them either.

My favourite is this one......................


G.communis - a dwarf early bloomer that is fully hardy.

However, I have seeds of G.orchidiflorus germinating..........................

 

I was at my local gardening club last night, and we had a speaker talking about Gladioli, he recommends planting in April because on average it takes 100 days from planting the bulbs to flowering, and it's can get a bit cold still.
They can be put in to a depth of between 3 and 6 inches.
What he recommended was to remove the husk around the bulb, also you could place a small amount of gravel in the bottom of the hole first, then plant.
You don't have to big them up after about 4 years after then they will possibly only produce leaves, then thats the time to dig up and split them.
And they don't need any support till you can see the first few buds.

 

If you are going to lift them I wouldn't bother with anything - just stuff them in.

If you are going to leave them in, and don't have sandy soil, then I would put sand under them to stop the rotting in winter.

I chit some of mine (just in seed trays of MPC), successively, until I plant so that they come at different times - but we grow them as cut flowers for the house, not in the ornamental borders.

If they are Cultivars, as LongK mentions, then permanent planting in ornamental borders would be the way to go.

All IMHO