"Donald Gares" wrote in message
...
Ok, we planted about a zillion gladiolus bulbs (cheap at Menards) this
spring and to our surprise they most all came up. The problem is that they
got VERY tall (some almost 5 feet) and most have fell over before they
were even totally in bloom. In short, it just seems like they at "top
heavy".

Did we not plant them deep enough, do they need fertilizing, cheap bulbs,
etc., or is it just the nature of them?

Also, any chance they will make it over winter in extreme SE Iowa (zone
5)? We know that the books say that you must dig them but as cheap as they
are we seriously doubt if most individuals do.

Thanks to all who reply,

Don & Rhonda


Glads can be grown against a fence or wall to be semi-trellised or in any
other manner bound upward with minimal effort, & where they'll be
protected from winds that knock them down.

Glads are naturally prone to "lodging" or falling over, but a higher
percentage will lodge if planted at a shallow depth. Instructions are
frequently to plant them near the surface like irises, but planting them a
little deeper than the recommended maximum does not hinder them, according
to field studies conducted by Farid Uddin et al of the Bangladesh
University Department of Horticulture. The only change they observed from
planting corms more deeply was fewer of the flower spikes lodged (20 to
33% of shallowly planted corms lodged, but less than 8% of the deeply
planted ones lodged).

But many specialists insist (despite the findings of the Bangladesh study)
that development will be retarded if they are not planted in the warm zone
near the surface. So the traditional recommendation is to start them
shallow then build mounds of soil over them when they are at the three to
five leaf stage, & earth up a second time when they are at the seven leaf
stage. This too will minimalize the percentage that lodge. Personally I'd
just plant them a full six inches deep & not worry about earthing up,
unless I knew I had unusually tall-spike varieties.

There are also semi-dwarf varieties such as the butterfly glads that are
inclined to remain upright without assistance, though even these may lean.
There are gladiolus varieties like 'Nova Lux,' 'Eurovision' & 'White
Prosperity' which were purportedly developed with higher leaf apex to
better support the spikes, so that they will lodge less, but a percentage
always will, & they can just be the ones taken first for bouquets. And
there are species gladioli that tend to remain upright way better than the
hybrids.

When stakes are unavoidable, they only need to be three feet tall to brace
the lower part of the stem, so won't much interfer with the overall look
of the flowers in the garden.

-paghat the ratgirl
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