Gladioli Bulbs

Gladioli are fantastic to grow in the garden and allotment. They add lots of colour, they are fantastic for the bees and they are extremely easy to grow. You can grow gladioli to observe and look at the splendor of the colours or you can grow them to cut and put in a vase in the house. Gladioli are as easy to grow as spring bulbs. These will fill the gap when the spring flowers die back. Here you will find out how to grow Gladioli bulbs.

Allotment and Kitchen Garden Book

Are you starting an allotment or planning on growing your own fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers in a kitchen garden? If so we highly recommend the book Allotment Month By Month. This does exactly what it does on the cover to help you with what you should be doing in the allotment and kitchen garden each month. Below you can see the link for Amazon where you can purchase the book directly. This book is extremely popular with all allotment holders as you will read in the reviews:-

You can check out all the allotment and kitchen garden books we recommend here.

Varieties of Gladioli

There are many varieties of Gladioli available to grow from minitures, hybrids up to giant sized gladioli.

Find Gladioli Bulbs for sale here

When to sow Gladioli

The best time to plant gladioli is around April – May then it will give it enough time to grow ready for summer and autumn.

Choosing the best soil for Gladioli

When choosing the area to plant gladioli it needs to be in soil that holds moisture but well drained. If the soil is heavy in spring try planting them in a different area or improve the soil by adding compost.

How to plant the Gladioli bulbs

Gladioli bulbs are not actually called bulbs the are called corms. The best thing to do when planting the corms is dig over the area you are going to grow them. Space the gladioli corms onto of the surface around 15cm apart.

Once you are happy with the layout of your Gladioli you can now dig them below the surface. They need to be dug at least 10cm deep. This will prevent you from having to stake the flowers when they grow. This is so they don’t topple over with the weight of the flower.

Looking after Gladioli Flowers

To get the best out of your gladioli you need to water them well to flower well, as you would if you were looking after flowers in a vase they like to drink a lot. One way you can keep them watered well is when you are planting them add a trench of organic matter this will help retain the water.

Succession Planting

If you have quite a lot of gladioli bulbs to plant if you plant some every couple of weeks this way you will have blooms all the way through summer as they bloom at different times. It will take around 3 months for the flowers to appear from planting of the bulb.

Planting Gladioli in pots.

If you are wanting to plant gladioli in plant pots first you can put around 4-5 in one large plant pot. Keep them somewhere frost free like in a greenhouse or polytunnel. Keep the plants watered well. When the shoots start to appear you can plant them outdoors from May. If you are leaving them in the plant pot make sure they are kept watered.

Looking after your Gladioli Bulbs / Corms

When it comes to the end of the flowering of the Gladioli you need to dig up the corms, this is because if they get frost on them it can kill them. Wait until the leaves have gone yellow on the plant before digging them up. Cut the corm off the plant. Leave the comes for a few weeks to dry out in a frost dry free place. The new corms on the old corm should just detach from it. You can throw away the old corms.

With the new corms they need to be stored somewhere dry, cold and in a box away from any mice and rats. Leave them there until the next year ready to plant out in April / May.