On 09/10/2013 13:59, Janet wrote:
In article ,
says...
They've been in flower since August and later stems have enough buds
for another fortnight unless today's storm snaps their heads off; I've
brought a vaseful indoors just in case, possums.
Janet.
They all look great, Janet, but I especially love the G.Black Star.
Amazing colour!
Years ago, I also grew gladioli. Some of the leaves were spoiled
(marked and holey), but they flowered. The following year, no flowers
but lots of grassy foliage. I left the corms in, hoping they would
increase to flowering size, but they didn't. I spent a couple of years
pulling the grassy leaves up to get rid of them. I then sulked and
bought no more :~((.
That's exactly what I found with several attempts with G byzantium and
nanus, proclaimed to be "hardier". NBG.
Glad it's not just me, then. Pity, as I admire some of the nanus types.
So the question is: how do you keep them as flowering-size corms? Is
your soil lighter than mine (heavy clay despite 32yrs improving it)?, do
you plant them extra deep?, or feed/starve them ... or what?
I garden on deep sandy loam, haven't found the bottom yet as the
deepest hole we've dug (pond) was only a metre. It's very high rainfall
here (west coast of Scotland), but free draining. I plant every kind of
bulb/corm 6 inches deep to defeat the pheasants' dustbath-excavations.
I fed the glads with a surface scattering of pelleted chicken manure in
summer; and in winter the whole garden gets mulched with raw seaweed
straight off the beach.
Janet
Thanks for that, Janet. Obviously, I'm not going to change my heavy
clay for sandy loam, so I may have to try a raised bed. Not sure that
won't look a bit 'awkward' for the bigger glads, but we'll see. I will
also try the deeper planting, perhaps on a bed of grit. I'm quite fond
of pelleted chicken manure and will use that. I haven't tried a seaweed
feed yet (can't easily get the real thing here), but keep hearing great
things about it, so will give that a go, too.
Must start hunting down some handsome glads to plant, starting with
'Black Star'. I would hate to appear cormless ;~).
--
Spider.
On high ground in SE London
gardening on heavy clay