'Glad' Thoughts for the Past, Present, and Future

OK, so Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and I am "glad" and thankful for many gardening memories, activities, and plans.

But the "glads" I'm specifically thinking about here are Gladioli, sometimes called Sword Lilies. They're highly hybridized these days, and the ones I usually plant are mixes, so I get a wide range of colors.

For many years, I planted them regularly, but then I lapsed for about a decade. My climate is a little too cold to leave them in the ground. While some might survive, it's not assured. So, to be safe and to gain plenty of plants for the next year, the "corms" must be dug up, stored for the winter, and replanted the following spring. I guess I just got lazy, and then I kind of forgot about the joys of Gladioli...

But the thing is, the process isn't that hard! It's kind of fun! If you start with a hori hori (the tool shown in the first photo and above--one of my favorites), it's easy to plant them in the spring (about five to eight inches deep). And then you can use the same tool to loosen soil around the corms in the fall, gently lift them, and bring them in for the winter.

For the past few years, I've been enthusiastically going through the motions!

In a previous post about Winter 'Bulb' Storage Made Easy, I shared a simple method of storing the Gladiolus corms in mesh bags for the winter (along with suggested storage for other "bulbs").



But before that stage, I simply lay them flat on newspaper or paper towels to dry out and cure. After a couple weeks, they're ready to have their stems and roots clipped, their old corms removed, and then to be stored until planting in April or May.



At the base of each corm, there are lots of little baby "cormels." Aren't they cute?!

In past years, I've simply composted the cormels, but this year I'm doing a little experiment: Based on my own thoughts and suggestions from Facebook friends (thanks!), I'm saving some of these little babies. Because they can take several years to get big enough to form blooms, some were fed to wildlife in the woods, some have been planted in warm garden spots (maybe they'll survive to bloom in future years?), and some will go into a big planter pot to make it easier to track their progress.



The photo above shows how an old corm from this year produced two new corms and some cormels.



Here's another view of how the cormels form at the base.



It's worth it to go through the digging, curing, storing, and replanting to gain these tall, colorful flower spikes--in the garden and as cut flowers for display.

Glads are definitely part of my past, present, and future. :)

For excellent descriptions of gardening with Gladioli in cold climates, from start to finish, visit these links:

Planting and growing

Lifting and storing