Flower lovers tend to either loathe or adore tall hybrid gladiolas.\u00a0 Dame Edna Everage, actor Barry Humphries\u2019 diva-esque, lavender-haired alter ego, loves them so much that she dubbed them her \u201csignature flower.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a perfect fit\u2014both are commanding and flamboyant.\u00a0 Available in an array of colors, from pastels to some truly screaming shades, gladiolas are impossible to miss.\u00a0 Florists have long used them in arrangements, especially for funeral sprays.\u00a0 This has created a negative association for some people.<\/p>\n
But not for all.\u00a0 As with other flashy flowers, from dahlias to hyacinths, gladiolas were much more popular in the late nineteenth and early to mid twentieth centuries than they are now. \u00a0My trusty copy of the 1947 Wayside Gardens catalog lists nearly fifty separate varieties, with evocative names including \u2018Greta Garbo,\u2019 \u2018Marie Antoinette\u2019 and \u2018Shirley Temple\u2019. As my friend Scott Kunst, proprietor of Old House Gardens, an heirloom bulb retailer, reports in his Newsletter Archives, the flowers have also been favored by many creative luminaries, from painter Claude Monet to the contemporary American garden designer\/showman, Ryan Gainey.\u00a0 Gordon Frey, a professor at New York\u2019s Fashion Institute of Technology, who moonlights as a flower arranger at St. Luke\u2019s Church in Montclair, New Jersey, shares that enthusiasm, using the elongated flower stalks as spokes in wheel-shaped designs or allowing red-orange varieties to symbolize tongues of fire on liturgical occasions like Pentecost.<\/p>\n
The name \u201cgladiola\u201d comes from the same Latin root as the word \u201cgladiator.\u201d \u00a0AS any aficionado of \u201csword and sandals\u201d movies knows, a gladiator is a swordsman.\u00a0 The gladiola\u2019s long, sword-shaped leaves inspired Linnaeus to link ancient fighters and colorful flowering plants when he christened the genus Gladiolus in the eighteenth century.<\/p>\n
The most popular, large-flowered hybrids have a complicated family history involving summer-blooming species like the yellow and red Gladiolus dalenii, G. oppositiflorus and red-flowered G. saundersii; all native to South Africa.\u00a0 The first hybridizing efforts, involving the G. dalenii, began in 1837.\u00a0 They have continued ever since.<\/p>\n
Those of us who live in cold-winter climates have long lifted and stored gladiola corms in the winter or treated the plants as annuals and bought new ones every year.\u00a0 Both options are less popular in today\u2019s lower maintenance gardens.\u00a0 Fortunately, many gladiola lovers have pushed zone hardiness limits and found that under some circumstances, glads will survive cold, snowy winters.\u00a0 In my Zone 6 garden, several anonymous salmon-colored specimens are now on their fourth or fifth annual return engagement.\u00a0 Last winter was mild, but the one before it was exceptionally cold and snowy.\u00a0 Despite all that, the salmon glads have looked better each year.<\/p>\n
The best way to ensure in-ground survival is to plant the corms in a sunny, protected, well-drained space and apply a heavy layer of winter mulch.\u00a0 They should not be planted too deeply\u2014no more than six inches down\u2014and should be spaced four to six inches apart.\u00a0 The tallest varieties, with the big ruffly flowers, may have to be staked, especially if they are subjected to strong winds or rain.<\/p>\n
I have also had great success with the survival of an older variety, \u2018Boone,\u2019 which may date back to the 1920\u2019s.\u00a0 Its stalks are somewhat shorter and its blossoms are smaller than many popular varieties, meaning that it blends very well into a cottage garden or a mixed planting scheme that emphasizes pastels.<\/p>\n
I was not a born gladiola lover, but I have become a convert.\u00a0 Besides, I can\u2019t ignore beauty, not to mention fashion.\u00a0 After all, Dame Edna Everage likes glads\u2014they must be the height of style.<\/p>\n
Find out more about gladiola lore by going to the Old House Gardens archive, http:\/\/www.oldhousegardens.com\/GladiolusArchives.asp<\/a>.\u00a0 Gladiolus corms can be obtained in late winter or early spring from garden centers and other retail outlets.\u00a0 For an interesting selection try Brent and Becky’s Bulbs, 7900 Daffodil Lane, Gloucester, VA 23061; (877) 661-2852; www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Free catalog.\u00a0 Scott Kunst supplies historical varieties at Old House Gardens, 536 Third St., Ann Arbor, MI 48103; (734) 995-1486; www.oldhousegardens.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Catalog $2.00.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Flower lovers tend to either loathe or adore tall hybrid gladiolas.\u00a0 Dame Edna Everage, actor Barry Humphries\u2019 diva-esque, lavender-haired alter ego, loves them so much that she dubbed them her \u201csignature flower.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a perfect fit\u2014both are commanding and flamboyant.\u00a0 Available in an array of colors, from pastels to some truly screaming shades, gladiolas are … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[93,92,87,89,88,91,58,90],"class_list":["post-437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-summer","tag-dame-edna-everage","tag-gladiola-history","tag-gladiolas","tag-gladiolus","tag-glads","tag-summer-flowers","tag-summer-gardening","tag-sword-lily"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":438,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions\/438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}