Hi. Is this a gladiola? Oops, sorry, I guess I do not not know how to insert a picture, or to delete this.
thanks
brainerd
This message was edited Sep 25, 2007 9:06 PM
glad id?
When you writing your post, below the box is a space labeled "Image:" Click on the "Browse" button to its right and a window will come up. It will show folders and files on your machine. You then navigate to the folder that has the pic you want to post. Click on it and you will be back to your post, ready to click "Preview" or "Send".
Preview lets you see how the final post will look, the picture in thumbnail.
R.
did it work? Appreciate the help. I am dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to computers.
brainerd
Apparantly it worked. Yee Haw! This flower which has what looks like gladiola leaves was planted in mass (bulbs) in planters by my neighbor and has been a mystery ever since as it never bloomed. Now in mid september it is blooming. Trouble is that glads are done blooming up here a couple months ago. Am wondering if it indeed is a gladiola, I have a six pack of Pepsi riding on it.
Thanks
Brainerd
Well I hope you bet that it is a gladiolus... it's an African species called Gladiolus murielae. I just found it on the web. Maybe wallaby1 knows about it
http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=gladiolus+murielae&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi
I guess it goes by a few names, but it's in Plantfiles as Gladiolus callianthus
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/756/
I think that callianthus refers to one with brown markings (which I have never seen) and murielae to the one with the purple markings and is taller. Mine were called Acidanthera bicolor when I bought them.
Read this in Scott Ogden's _Garden Bulbs For The South_.
R.
Oh such confusion, LOL!
They are all the same bulb, it's been given several different names but the one I think most recently given is Gladiolus callianthus.
Some reading here to tell some of the names given,
http://www.exoticgardening.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=68
The above site gives it hardy to Zone 7, it may be if you get plenty of heat for most of the year but I have my doubts. The bulbs I planted in the ground last year didn't return, even some I repotted in the greenhouse in spring didn't grow but we have had a dastardly cold year. Still, I repotted 6 bulbs and only one regrew well, a couple others weakly and one of those has just flowered, a miracle considering the low temps we had. I did plant up some of the small offset bulbs and they seem to be growing well, maybe I should lift them for the winter. I am still surprised that the small ones are growing while the very large, healthy renewed bulbs from last year are struggling. Perhaps this one does best from small bulbs, a survival technique it may have developed, who knows. The bulbs which we buy are always quite small compared to the large renewed bulbs mine grew to last year.
The name by which they are traditionally sold I think is Acidanthera bicolor 'Murielae'
The PBS has called it G. murielae, whether that is on old reference I don't know.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Acidanthera
Ah, yes, the name game.....
There's no mistaking them when they're in bloom and that luscious perfume scents the garden. It is most fragrant at night and is truly powerful--one blossom is noticeable over a large area.
IMine were the best I've had this year. I read that they grow naturally in marshy ground, so I poured on the water. They were about four feet tall and bloomed for a long period. Love how they quickly multiply, too.
I have had them overwinter here in 7b, kept virtually dry in potting mix outdoors. I'll be leaving mine in the ground this year and expect that they will return since they are in a well-drained area.
R.
Well praise and kudos to you all. I get my six pack of pepsi after all. This is just too amazing to have access to a resource like this and people like you. These plants have been the conversation piece all summer since my neighbor ordered the bulbs but totally forgot what they were or why he ordered them. He did not think they were glads, but the leaves were too similar for me, they had to be glads. But when it finally did bloom last week then I began to doubt because it did not look like any glad I had ever seen up here in Fargo, and I did not understand why it was blooming in the fall. But the hyperlink you gave Wallaby explained all of that well, as well as the other posts by you folks. I know now what to tell him to do this winter, bring the pots inside instead of digging them up (according to the article). So the mystery is solved, and I learned how to post a picture on this site. Can't get any better than that.
Brainerd
:-)
brainerd, I hope you enjoy your time here. One small note about leaving them in their pots, which is what I did until they had completely died back and that was very late here as last year was a record hot year.
Mine also grew very tall then and did very well in a pot in the greenhouse, and I left them there until March I think when I dug them up and took off the small cormlets. They were all fine except for one out of seven which had started to rot on one edge, I had left them dry and if the weather had been better they probalby would have all grown well.
We don't have the heat most of you have even if you are in a much colder zone. Our temperatures may not get so low, but neither do they get so high! They like the sun, something we are usually seriously lacking, our summer this year was anything from 12C (54F) in July, often 14-16C (57-61F), occasionally a little above that and rarely over 20C (68F) for the whole of summer! Even April was giving us winter temps of 6C (43F).
Now the thing is it's fine to leave them in their pots, I usually prefer to do this as it's more like they would be in nature, but they make LOTS of cormlets, and if they are not separated you will have some serious overcrowding. They also renew their corm after flowering until they die back, leaving an old shrivelled one on the base which is best removed.
This was not all of the cormlets from this one corm, there were more in the compost, that was in March and I replanted them soon after.
Thanks again Wallaby. I will tell the neighbors about the corms. I just told my neighbors of my success here and they are pretty thrilled to solve the mystery. I guess i should share the six pack of pepsi with all you folks!
brainerd