Glad for gladis
En garde! Swords out! Or sword lilies at least. Usually just referred to as Gladioli (a made up plural of the genus Gladiolus), they aren’t a lily -they’re a member of Iridaceae (the iris family). The genus name is derived from ‘gladius’ the Latin word for a short sword. And, in case, (like me) you are now wondering what the Latin for a long sword is, that would be something like spatha or ensis, or you could add a word like longus or magnus to the word gladius. Lots of the popular hybrids now are quite tall, but there are shorter species which I guess inspired the original genus name. The majority of gladiolus species come from South Africa, with a significant number from tropical africa and a few from Europe and Asia. The grandma vibe hybrids that we grow are mostly derived from South African varieties.
Gladiolus are corms (similar to a bulb) which shoot up slender sword like leaves that then produce a spike of colourful trumpet shaped flowers. They usually have fairly fixed flowering times based on planting time which is about three months. This means you can - about 3 months - so for the longest display of blooms, stagger your planting time. The flowers last for about 2 weeks so if you plant a few corms every few weeks you’ll have constant colour. If you live in an area with frost, you can start planting any time after the last frost until about 3 months before your first frost (so they have time to flower!). If you’re somewhere warmer you can nearly plant all year round, but usually from late winter to early summer. (I reckon if you’re in SE Qld like me you’ll just have time to squeeze in a few now though!). They’ll die back at the end of the season and you can lift them if you suffer wet winters, or leave them in the ground if you have dry winters and good drainage.
Gladis like full sun or even a little bit of shade in super hot weather, so find a sunny spot, preferably protected from the wind (or they might need staking). They like water, but also need excellent drainage. Corms are planted pointy end up (if you look close, you can usually see which direction the roots were growing) about 10-15cm deep. The flowers make great cut flowers and last well in a vase - but once you cut the stalk you won’t get more flowers from that corm this season. Even more reason to plant lots!
