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Janet · 09-10-2013, 02:59 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

In article ,
says...
They've been in flower since August and later stems have enough buds
for another fortnight unless today's storm snaps their heads off; I've
brought a vaseful indoors just in case, possums.

Janet.

They all look great, Janet, but I especially love the G.Black Star.
Amazing colour!

Years ago, I also grew gladioli. Some of the leaves were spoiled
(marked and holey), but they flowered. The following year, no flowers
but lots of grassy foliage. I left the corms in, hoping they would
increase to flowering size, but they didn't. I spent a couple of years
pulling the grassy leaves up to get rid of them. I then sulked and
bought no more :~((.

That's exactly what I found with several attempts with G byzantium and
nanus, proclaimed to be "hardier". NBG.

So the question is: how do you keep them as flowering-size corms? Is
your soil lighter than mine (heavy clay despite 32yrs improving it)?, do
you plant them extra deep?, or feed/starve them ... or what?

I garden on deep sandy loam, haven't found the bottom yet as the
deepest hole we've dug (pond) was only a metre. It's very high rainfall
here (west coast of Scotland), but free draining. I plant every kind of
bulb/corm 6 inches deep to defeat the pheasants' dustbath-excavations.

I fed the glads with a surface scattering of pelleted chicken manure in
summer; and in winter the whole garden gets mulched with raw seaweed
straight off the beach.

Janet