So excited my South African bulb is blooming!
Gladiolus priorii
I'm in love!!
wow, it's very pretty :) so delicate!
Excellent !
Is this one normally a winter bloomer? (I do see it is inside.) And how old is it?
Congratulations boojum! Is this one you had trouble with when you first got it? I think it wasn't looking very happy, if it is then it certainly looks happy now.
Now I don't think I have grown that one, it was available as seed but I had to 'prioritise'. I went to the silverhillseeds site not long ago, longing to fill in those gaps, it won't take me long before the winter gets to me then I'm not sure if I can hold back!
Space is seriously lacking too, pots everywhere in the neighbours greenhouse. I am getting germination now from many I sowed in April and May.
I had all that info on my Word document of species Lefty, which I lost in the crash. But I do have the book.
G. priorii (SA name Rooipypie), has a fairly narrow distribution in Western Cape Province. Extends from granite hills in the northof Saldanha Bay, southward to the Cape Peninsula, extending only a short distance inland to the Hottentots Holland Mountains and eastward along the coast as far as Hermanus. It grows equally well on sandslopes as on granite outcrops.
G priorii is one of the first of the winter flowering species to bloom. It may begin in April, most often in May or June and even in July when rains are late.(add 6 months for North hemispere).
Flowers are adapted for pollination by the Sunbirds, although there are no records of them pollinating the flowers.
Info from "Gladiolus in Southern Africa" by Peter Goldblatt & John Manning.
Your pic is so much nicer than the drawing!
Hi all,
There are 2 blooms open now. The bloom stalks are leggy and hang down. Is that normal?? Do they have a pic of the whole stem Wallaby? I got this bulb this fall from Telos and it is the first of them to bloom-just like in the wild!!
It is not the same one I had trouble with-that was g. floribundus-which surprised me this fall by coming back from complete dormancy and producing leaves. I got that from Annie's in mid winter and it immediately lost all its leaves. Something made me keep it all summer (outdoors in the rain) and it came back. I also have foliage on griseus and carinatus.
Another close up.
My pots in a south window wondering what the evening sleet is about.
Ursula (RUK) just came home from a visit to that area of SA!
Bbrookrd was here Saturday and when she saw priorii, she said, "Wait til Wallaby sees that!" so I laughed when I saw you had posted!! She knows you well!
Oops.
Well I did try not to get too excited, but I went to silverhillseeds last night and ordered another 16 Gladiolus species and a few others! I got their invoice this morning and have handed over the dosh. And why not, lol!
They don't have G. priorii now but had it last year, some years they seem to miss some and have others. They have 2 new ones from when I last looked, of course these different species will mature at different times but if you wait for new ones to come others can sell out. They don't have pics of all of them but most can be found elsewhere. G pritzelii is a new one I haven't seen anywhere before, it's also gorgeous! Go to the catalogue, select to seach by 'name' and type in gladiolus,
www.silverhillseeds.co.za
And look on the PBS, it's beneath G priorii which doesn't look to droop much, but yours may be ovedrawn and leggy from lack of good sunlight and perhaps too warm? I'm not sure what the temps would be in their natural habitat, but some areas are down to 16C with colder nights in the winter. That would be ideal inside here, if they get enough sun haha, but mine will have to try to cope in the cold greenhouses I think unless I can get room for about, ummm, how many do I have, perhaps getting on 70 if they all grow!
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/SouthernAfricanGladiolusThree
Wow great pictures. I bought quite a few bulbs from telos this past summer and a couple were their glads. I planted mine all outside though so we will see what happens.
Uh-oh, I'm in trouble! Legginess-they are in a South facing window which radiates cold at night. I think this was pretty intuitive of me for a change! I don't care if they are leggy as long as they bloom!!
LOL, are you sure they aren't related to the glorywhatsit?
Looks to me like your G. priorii could get up and walk away!
Could be a good addition to your feline guards, eh, Wallaby?
-------------Sherleft
Seriously now, wait, I am serious(!) ------- anyway, I think it is just due to the inside environment also. I wouldn't let it go to seed though, Too much strain on the new plants, and you might risk losing them. Any plant, even tropicals, will benefit from day/night temperature fluctuations.
Anything near a window here gets them. Not huge fluctuations, but these windows are a bit leaky.
My second SA gladiolus was a bigger disaster. G. carinatus.
Two gummed up flowers that lasted a day.
But this one is doing well with many more buds to go.
G. griseus. So pretty.
I can see some lovely speckling on it, what was the disaster? If the shape is a bit off it might improve, but I can't really see the disaster!
Oh I see now, gummed up flowers, but they might be better with different conditions!
G griseus is gorgeous!
Wallaby, looks like griseus has around 5 buds on each of 3 stalks. We will see!
I second the gorgeous griseus comment. The color is just captivating.
boojum, going back to your first pic, the shape of the petals remind me of gladiolus callianthus aka acidanthera aka peacock glad, but coloring is different. I like yours much better.
I've had my g. callianthus for 3 years now and this Nov. was the first time they bloomed in profusion. I had previously whined about the fact they wouldn't bloom. I did nothing different this year (not even a threat, lol) yet they put on a wonderful show. Wonder if the rainy 2007 summer had something to do with them flowering so nicely. Since most of my bulbs were WM packages, no telling if I had immature bulbs which have finally established themselves.
I just got these bulbs this fall. Kinda inneresting to see which are happy and which are weird in the same environment. I assume the more mature the bulb, the more consistent the flowers and plant. G. priorii is definitely the same shape as the peacock but oh so much smaller. Do you have pics of your callianthus show?
shame on me, I didn't take pics. And it was a great show. I still have a few flowers, but show's def. over.