Will cutting off the stem of already flowered Gladiolas aide them in
growing or flowering again this season?

No, they will not flower again this year, no matter what you do. However,
cutting the spent flower stem will prevent the plant from putting energy
into seed production, which can help give the bulb more reserves for growing
and flowering next year.

If you live in a cold winter area, you can dig and store the bulbs this
fall. If you live in a mild winter area, you can just leave them in place.
I'm in zone 6, and winters can be quite variable, so it's a gamble. I still
prefer to dig and store them so that I can deal with all the little offset
bulbs.

Cheers,
Sue

Zone 6, Southcentral PA

"John DeBoo" wrote in message
...
Will cutting off the stem of already flowered Gladiolas aide them in
growing or flowering again this season?

Our Gladiolas tend to get tall (about 4 or 5 foot) and fall over on
the ground while blooming. Is there a solution to this besides
staking them?

Lee


On Thu, 24 Jul 2003 17:21:42 GMT, "SugarChile"
wrote:

Not a good one 8-). You can try planting them a little deeper, and piling a
loose mulch, like straw, around them once they are up and growing. You can
grow them in-between tall bushy perennials that will give them some support.
Or you can grow them in row and run sticks-and-twine along the rows, instead
of staking them individually.

I grow mine in front of a row of cannas, which support them in the back, and
run some twine along the front. They still sometimes flop sideways, but as
I'm growing them mainly for cut flowers I don't worry about it too much.

There seem to be some variables involved--rain, soil fertility, bulb
variety, etc, but I don't have any details.

Cheers,
Sue

Zone 6, Southcentral PA

"NC_FUBAR" wrote in message
...
Our Gladiolas tend to get tall (about 4 or 5 foot) and fall over on
the ground while blooming. Is there a solution to this besides
staking them?

Lee

Thanks, I'll cut them back and hope the bulbs winter well. Zone 7,
Albuquerque

SugarChile wrote:

No, they will not flower again this year, no matter what you do. However,
cutting the spent flower stem will prevent the plant from putting energy
into seed production, which can help give the bulb more reserves for growing
and flowering next year.

If you live in a cold winter area, you can dig and store the bulbs this
fall. If you live in a mild winter area, you can just leave them in place.
I'm in zone 6, and winters can be quite variable, so it's a gamble. I still
prefer to dig and store them so that I can deal with all the little offset
bulbs.

Cheers,
Sue

Zone 6, Southcentral PA

"John DeBoo" wrote in message
...

Will cutting off the stem of already flowered Gladiolas aide them in
growing or flowering again this season?

"SugarChile" wrote in message
...
Not a good one 8-). You can try planting them a little deeper, and piling
a
loose mulch, like straw, around them once they are up and growing. You
can
grow them in-between tall bushy perennials that will give them some
support.
Or you can grow them in row and run sticks-and-twine along the rows,
instead
of staking them individually.

Cheers,
Sue

Zone 6, Southcentral PA

When I had "real" soil in Minnesota, I used a spade and dug a trench as deep
as the depth of the spade, piled the dirt on one side of the trench, and
placed the corms in the bottom of this trench. I then covered the corms to
about a third of the depth of the trench. As they sprouted and grew, I
gradually pushed in the remaining dirt until the trench was filled. Unless
we had a severe storm when they were flowering, they seldom went over.

John

".. cutting the spent flower stem will prevent the plant from putting energy
into seed production, which can help give the bulb more reserves for growing
and flowering next year ...."

Just make sure that you leave plenty of stem and leaf to make next years
bulb, just remove the flower head.

--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk