As a gladiolus enthusiast, I firmly believe there is no other flower with a better claim to a place in your backyard.
Glads come in a greater variety of colors, sizes, and shapes than any other flower I have seen, and they are easy to grow in nearly any climate. The flower spikes are among the longest-lasting and most helpful of any common flower.
Unfortunately, few people realize the wide range of colors and types that can be found because nearly all glad that one sees in a florist shop are white, salmon, or red.
This is because the gladiolus is a bread-and-butter item to the florist and is mainly used in floral pieces requiring a mass of color. The less common colors are ideal for smaller decorative arrangements in the home.
Gladiolus Are Easy To Grow
Glads are easy to grow. They will grow in any soil except an area with poor drainage and tolerate acid or alkaline soil.
When I give some of my bulbs to a friend who has not grown glads before, I am invariably asked how to produce them.
My stock answer is to plant on May, 6″ inches deep and 6″ inches apart, in a place with the all-day sun if possible and provide plenty of water. Then dig in October, remove the old dead bulbs at the base after three weeks and store them in a cool, not freezing, place over winter.
That is the easy answer, and it will give good results. However, read on if you want to grow bigger and better glads than your neighbors.
I’m not sure I should write an article on glads for the backyard gardener. I grow glads in my backyard, but a quarter of an acre is a little more than most readers will probably want.
However, the fact that I plant so much as a hobby only has forced me continually to seek any new technique that will improve the results without extra work or simplify my task.
Buying Gladiolus Bulbs
On the assumption that this is the first year, you will grow glads, let us begin with your purchase of bulbs. You can go to almost any garden center or variety store or order through a catalog.
Several specialized records include only glads, but they are primarily for the enthusiast who wants the newer and fancier varieties, for which he is willing to pay a premium price. There are thousands of types of glads, all different.
Some 200 new combinations are placed on the market yearly at prices ranging from $5 to $10 a bulb. Older and more familiar varieties sell for five to 15 cents a bulb.
Buy mixed types or a few bulbs of several varieties to provide various colors. If you want good blooms the first year, ensure the bulbs are at least an inch in diameter.
For Thrips Control
After purchasing bulbs, it is a good idea to dust them with DDT. In small quantities, this can be done by shaking them in a bag with about a quarter teaspoonful of DDT per dozen bulbs. DDT is to kill any thrips, the only insect that is a real problem.
Thrips are small and inconspicuous, but they can cause your bulbs to shrivel over winter and, in the summer, can cause flowers to curl and fail to open.
Young thrips are light buff and about 1/32″ of an inch long. The adult is about 1/16″ of an inch long and is black with a white belt.
Preparing Gladiolus Bulbs
Glads can be planted as early in the spring as the ground can be easily worked. We usually begin planting the last week in April and continue over 4 weeks.
Plants where they will receive plenty of sun, the more, the better. Different varieties take different periods to bloom.
If you have a mixture of several types, you can plant all bulbs simultaneously and expect them to bloom over 3 or 4 weeks.
Most varieties bloom from 65 to 100 days after growing in our climate. We usually have blooms from early July until about mid-October, when the first freeze ends the season.
Some people treat their bulbs before planting as protection against disease.
I have found that if I throw away any unhealthy-looking bulbs before planting, I don’t need any pre-planting treatment in a warmer climate or if you have had disease problems in the past, you may want to soak your bulbs for 15 minutes immediately before planting in a solution of one-third of an ounce of new, improved Arasan in a gallon of water.
The Planting Process
I have mechanized the planting process. With a four-wheel tractor and furrower, I dig a trench 6″ inches deep. It is easy to hand-dig a continuous track 6″ inches deep for only a few bulbs.
Spread evenly on the bottom of the trench superphosphate or bone meal at about three pounds per 100′ feet of row. Then cultivate the bottom of the trench lightly to mix in the fertilizer.
You could use a balanced commercial or organic fertilizer instead of superphosphate or bone meal, but tests have shown that in the first few weeks of growth, glads use primarily phosphorus.
Bulbs are then placed in the trench about 6″ inches apart. Before covering, I dust the bulbs lightly with Arasan, the simplest way to obtain reasonable disease control.
In most areas, not even this treatment should be necessary. The trench is then covered, and there is nothing to do for about a month except keep up with the weeds.
Glad foliage typically appears in about two weeks. Nature usually provides adequate rain at that time of year. A slight dryness does not harm as it will encourage the roots to go deeper where the soil is more excellent and moister.
Gladiolus Fertilizing Process
When the foliage is about a foot high, it is time to side-dress with a balanced fertilizer. A fertilizer low in nitrogen, such as about 5-10-10, is preferable on very light soils.
For best results, I fertilize again when bloom spikes first come into sight. Both times application is at the rate of about three pounds per 100 feet of row and is in a band that extends to three or four inches away from the plants.
With the first application of fertilizer, it is time to begin watering. I like to provide about an inch of rain a week.
When less than that amount falls naturally, the sprinkler is turned on. After the blooming season, watering can be discontinued.
The villain thrips have previously been mentioned. Dusting bulbs with DDT will kill thrips on your bulbs, but unfortunately, they frequently migrate from someone else’s glads or onions.
To prevent any damage, it is best to spray or dust weekly with DDT or malathion, beginning when the foliage is about a foot high and continuing until the blooming season is over.
Dusting is more straightforward, but spraying is more effective. Be sure to cover the bloom spikes.
Various Use Of Glads
The gladiolus is primarily useful as a cut flower. The average time to cut a bloom spike for house use is the day the first flower is fully open.
You will probably want a stem about 15″ to 20″ inches below the first floret, but try not to damage any more leaves than necessary.
Many people use a knife and cut down one side of the spike to the desired stem length, then across and up the other side of the end.
With some practice, you may pick a spike without a knife by pulling some of the outside leaves away from the stem and breaking the branch off at the desired height.
There does not seem to be any way to make an individual glad flower last more than two days. By keeping the spike in water, removing dead flowers, and cutting the stem a little shorter daily, each point will last a week.
How To Dig Gladiolus For Winter Storing
Gladiolus must be dug each fall and stored over winter because they can be killed by freezing, and, second, they multiply and would give poor results in future years even if they did not freeze.
Bulbs should be given at least a month after blooming before digging to develop a good bulb for the following year. Searching is simple if a spading fork is used.
The underground crop includes one or more new bulbs on top of the old one and several bulblets around the base. Foliage should be cut off as close as possible to the new bulb.
Bulbs and bulblets should be spread out in a warm, dry place to cure, and after about three weeks, the old bulb can be popped off and discarded. If planted next year, bulblets will grow into small bulbs the first season and probably will bloom the following year.
If the old bulbs are not separated from the new ones in three to four weeks, the process will be much more difficult.
After cleaning, the new bulbs should be dusted with Sevin and stored where the temperature varies between 40° and 60° degrees Fahrenheit. In a warm and humid place, they may sprout before planting time.
In recent years there has been a sharp rise in the popularity of small or miniature glads, which are helpful as garden flowers and decorative arrangements.
Now that you know all about growing glads, you should be warned that all the so-called experts in the business call them either gladiolus—with the accent on the “O”—or glads for short. The person who uses any of the many other pronunciations of words is considered to know very little about glads.
44659 by Charles T. Larus