Every year when we've dug up the Glads, there have been many tiny bulbets(?). I've just left them there. Now we have bunches of naturalized Glads all over the yard. These babies have survived our zone 5a winters, grown and are now blooming!!!
Consequently, I no longer dig my glads every fall, they remain in the garden, just like the other perennials.
WOWSER!! That is so cool threegardeners. I daren't do that here sigh.
Really?? They survive the winter and bloom? Are they the so-called hardy Gladioli? I had a pineapple lily that reliably overwintered but it never bloomed :(
Steven
Really!! They survive the winter and bloom!!
I just bought them years ago in a garden centre, not labeled as hardy but I got tired of digging them up year after year after year and decided to experiment.
Began by leaving the baby bulbs in the ground, just in case, and when I saw they survived I left the whole lot of them in the ground. I have them in many different colours.
The picture is BEAUTIFUL!! Maybe I will leave a couple in the ground to see what happens. Is that one you left in the ground?
Awsome!! I'm usually to lazy to dig up bulbs in the fall so this should work out great! How deep do you usually plant your bulbs?
The picture is of one I left in the ground.
I plant them down at least 6 inches. The hardest part was remembering where they all were ^_^
Experiment with a couple ^_^
Just mark where they are so you can remember in the spring and see what happens.
May I beg a question of threegardeners. Does your ground freeze down to the level of the corm? Most of the hardy gladiolus hype is just that. The information that i have is that frost determines survival. What some folks are finding including myself is if a good job of mulching is done you may be able to overwinter, but no guarantees depending on the year.
I invite all of you to join the Forum at www.gladworld.org and contribute you experiences.
Lowell
We always have some come up that overwintered themselves.
Where we dumped the cleaning debris last year, some came there. That was just dumped on top of the ground.
Here the ground will freeze down 2 ft with no problem. Most times more.
I won't try leaving corms in the ground though.
Potatoes also will come up from left over or discards from year before. Usually they will rot if froze, so I have no answer other than mother nature's strange ways.
Bernie
One last comment on the subject of overwintering. It appears that some cormels can stand frost in my gardens but with the number left in the ground each year the odds don't seem well for survival where the frost goes below planting depth. If you can keep the frost from going down you will probably be able to grow as a perennial. A departed hybridizer friend would cover his seedling patch with huge piles of leave so his corms from seedling got a jump start in the spring. My guess it weeded out a lot of disease prone seedlings.
Good Growing Everyone!
LD
I recently purchased a little package of 8 orchid glad bulbs being sold by elementary school children in a fund-raising project. After I received them I looked them up on line, since I was not familiar with them. Oops, the package made no mention of zone. I learned that they cannot spend the winter outdoors in my zone. I am not the sort who goes for digging things up to bring them indoors for the winter. Will it work to plant them in a pot (how big?) and bring that inside for the winter? And what kind of winter storage would it need? My basement ranges from damp to seriously wet and the mudroom has radiant heat in the floor. Any suggestions? Thanks!
I've grown them in 18 inch pots. They did beautifully. I think any size container will do as long as you maintain the spacing. The pot would have to be stored somewhere cool and dry for sure. Could you let the pot dry right out and cover it and then store it in the basement or would it still get too damp?
Well, the basement is pretty damp I think. We don't store anything on the floor, since it can get seriously wet at times depending on the weather. We set the mudroom thermostat at 60 degrees for the winter. Would the radiant heat in the floor be too warm?
I think the radiant heat would make it too warm. I think 60 is about as warm as you can go. Most recommend between 40 and 50.Anyone else have ideas?????
I have glads coming up from last year too. I also live in zone 5a! I am shocked.
Another question from a newbie to glads. I am in zone 3-4, so don't plan on leaving them in the ground over winter. Have always loved glads, but was always to lazy to dig and store, but now have cannas that I plan on digging and storing, so want to plant some glads too. Do I need to keep them covered over the winter? Is there any links any of you know of where it explains things in more detail so I know what I'm doing? Can I just store them in a cardboard box? How cold/ warm can they get and still survive? Any help and advice would be great! Thanks!
Here you go. Read the whole thread.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/759531/
Thanks! Awesome info! Think I'll print it all too!
I live in New York and the Winters here can get to 0 F, more than enough to freeze inches below ground. We left our Gladiolas in the ground and they come up year after year and the blooms are better than when we dug them out each year. Our plants produce seed pods too so we keep getting many new plants.
Hi Folks:
So glad to hear that some folks are able to keep their glads in the ground all year round (even people in Canada - which is colder than here in Washington, I think - that is where "ON" is,right? That does stand for Ontario, right?) Anyway - it's made me "brave" so I just bought another pack of the 50 jumbo bulbs (sorbet splash) for $7.00 and a packet of 16 of the Gladiolus My Love for $5.00 (all from good ole "Wally-World" ... can I say that here? ... if not, whoever screens these things, just take out the name, okay?). I’m going to try to burying these deep (at least 6 inches) in the middle line (about 1.5 feet in from edges) in my screened gardens and see if that’s deep enough to keep the frost off em. I'll let you all know next spring if this spring's planting came back up. (just in case it doesn't, I can always depend on my Oriental Lilies (Triumphators, mostly) to keep popping up each year - they appear to be very "winter-hardy" here.
