Chinese gladiolus: planting and care features

Methods for combating diseases and pests of gladioli

Outdoor cultivation

Yellow corrugated varieties

Proud tall beauties invariably attract multiple glances from everyone. It is impossible not to admire the beauty of inflorescences of a wide variety of shades and shapes. Velvety and smooth petals, crimped or serrated shape, everything about them is beautiful.

But, this is scary only at first glance, the only main difficulty is that you need to constantly dig up and replant the bulbs. As soon as this awareness comes and the cultivation and care of gladioli begins.

Place for spring planting

Before growing gladioli in the country, in a garden or in a flower bed, you need to decide on a place. It must be a sunny area that has good protection from the wind, although the plants are strong, but strong wind can literally put them on the ground. A light breeze will not interfere, the movement of air will help in protecting against the occurrence of fungal diseases.

• The best soil will be sandy loam and loam, if your soil is too heavy when planting, add sand.
• Lowlands or wetlands will not work because of the risk of tubers getting wet and rotting.
• Do not plant on slopes as the plants are tall enough to slope.
• Places with a high groundwater approach are also undesirable.

Planting gladioli for the first time allows you to choose any place convenient for them and you, if this is not the first time, then observe the following:

 
Every two years, and preferably annually, the place for planting gladioli bulbs should change.

The best predecessors will be: strawberries, onions, garlic, marigolds and tomatoes, those for which manure was applied are undesirable.

How to properly prepare the soil for planting gladioli

How to plant gladioli

These flowers grow beautifully on almost any soil, the main thing is that it is light and with the addition of sand on heavy soils, or vice versa, clay, if necessary, slightly improve too sandy soil, from which all nutrients will be quickly washed out.

Acidity should be light, excess can lead to fusarium, one of the most dangerous fungal diseases. Alkaline soil is also not good, it will slow down the flow of iron from the soil, which disrupts normal growth and development.

Prepare the soil in early spring, and if you know you have a dry area, then it would be better to start in the fall. Humus is introduced and the earth is dug twice as deep, followed by spring digging. It will be about 30 centimeters.

In the spring, dig again with the introduction of mineral fertilizers per 1 sq. M:

• Ammonium nitrate 15g
• Superphosphate 15gr
• Potassium sulfate 30g

The introduction of compost and charcoal is encouraged, which is an additional organic feeding.

VARIETIES.

With a large number of varieties, sizes and shapes, colors, flowering periods, even with a photo of gladiolus, it is very difficult to choose, order and buy the necessary planting material. To facilitate this task, all gladiolus flowers are classified.
The classification of gladioli varieties is quite simple. The first three numbers give the characteristics of the flower itself. The first number of these three characterizes the size of the flower - miniature (less than 6.5 cm - 1), small-flowered (6.5-9 cm - 2), mid-flowered (9-11.5 cm - 3), large-flowered (11,5-14 — 4) and giant (more than 14 cm -5). The second two numbers characterize the color of the petals.

The numbers "from 00 to 01" denote white gladioli; "02-04»- green gladioli; "10-16"- yellow gladioli, etc. before "90-98", Which denote smoky, brown colors. The second digit in this two-digit number characterizes the shade, if this digit is even, then this designation of the intensity of the color (tone), if the second digit is odd, then this indicates the presence of a border, spots, stripes and other irregularities in the color.
The letters indicate the timing of flowering of gladioli of this variety - very early (OR), early (P), mid-early (CP), medium (C), mid-late (SP), late (P). The time from planting gladioli bulbs to flowering ranges from 70 days (RR) to 120 (P).
According to the shape of the petals, gladiolus flowers are simple, corrugated, folded, dissected, double and dragon.
The next two digits are the year of the beginning of the sale of this variety,
Through the fraction, the number of buds on the peduncle and the number of simultaneously opened gladiolus flowers are recorded, then it is customary to indicate the author of the variety.
For example: green gladiolus - variety Australia 402-P-10, SG, 20/10, Lobaznov means that this variety is large-flowered (4), green (02), early flowering (P), strongly corrugated flowers (SG), 2010 sales, on the peduncle of 20 buds, of which 10 flowers are simultaneously revealed (20/10), the author of the Lobaznov variety.
According to the place of origin, the varieties are divided into two ecotypes: European and American. European varieties have a flower with smooth or slightly wavy edges, the inflorescence consists of 15-17 flowers, of which no more than 5-6 are opened at the same time. Most gladioli of the American ecotype have corrugated or folded medium-large and large flowers with the correct arrangement of flowers in the inflorescence, which has 20-22 buds, 8-10 flowers open.
A separate group is made up of fragrant gladioli, as the Acidantera plant is often called, the flower of which is similar in structure to the gladiolus flower. Acidantera is a beautiful, graceful flower of light shades. The color of flowers is white, light pink, cream. Most often grown in greenhouses.
Japanese gladiolus (aka Chinese gladiolus) - the montbrecia plant belongs to the iris family. The flowers of the Japanese gladiolus resemble the flowers of a real (dwarf) gladiolus, but on the peduncle they are not located in a dense spike, but in separate flowers. Japanese (Chinese) gladiolus is often used by the Japanese in drawing up ikebana. Planting and caring for a montebrecia is practically no different from planting and caring for gladioli.

To list the varieties of gladioli, and even more so to recommend a particular flower for growing, is a thankless task. The offers in various catalogs of gladioli are very large. By "pictures"Gladioli in catalogs you can pick up gladiolus white, gladiolus green or any other color (only black and blue gladiolus do not exist in nature, there are gladioli of very dark shades of red and purple, they are called"black gladioli»).
In indoor floriculture, gladiolus flowers are poorly distributed, although dwarf varieties are quite suitable for growing in an apartment or on a balcony.

Landing

The first thing to take care of when planting gladioli is the landing site. Gladioli love calm, sunny locations and well-drained soil. The best choice is sandy and loamy soils. If your area is clayey soil, add sand to it.

Areas where the groundwater level is very high, as well as those located in lowlands, too swampy or with a strong slope, are absolutely not suitable for growing gladioli.

To make flowers less susceptible to disease, you should not plant them in the same place for several years in a row. It is best to plant them in places where legumes, strawberries, onions, or garlic previously grew. Before planting, it is necessary to select the corms of gladioli. And a few weeks before disembarkation, you need to prepare them.

To do this, we clean them of scales and carefully examine them for the presence of pests and diseases. Remember that bulbs that are dry, soft, moldy or sore are absolutely unsuitable for planting. A bulb that is suitable for planting has a flat, smooth and shiny surface. To make the future plant stronger, it is better to leave only one sprout. The rest must be carefully broken out, after which the wounds must be treated with brilliant green.

Place the corms that you have selected in a warm, bright place, buds up, so that they can germinate a little. A bulb that is ready for planting should have a sprout size of 1 cm to 10 cm, and a root tubercle no more than 3 mm. In order to protect plants from pests and various diseases in the future, corms should be soaked in a strong solution of potassium permanganate before planting.

Diseases and pests

Fusarium (manifests itself in different ways and has several names: desiccation, yellow gladiolus, core rot, dry rot). Fusarium is most characterized by yellowing of the tips of the leaves, which progresses before or during flowering. The yellowness spreads between the veins, the leaves become striped, turn brown and die off. With a strong defeat, the whole plant dries up. Spores of the fungus penetrate into the vessels of the roots and corms. Plants are easily pulled out of the soil.

In infected plants, the shape, size and color of the flower change, leaves and peduncles are bent. The baby is almost not formed. Affected bulbs darken and shrivel. Most often, the defeat begins from the bottom. The development of fusarium is facilitated by both drought and excessive moisture, thickened plantings and violations of agricultural technology.

Herbiness, or jaundice. With early infection of gladiolus, the disease manifests itself in the yellowing of the tips of the leaves, which gradually spreads to the entire plant. The leaves turn straw yellow, the plant dies prematurely. With lesions at a later date, no external signs of the disease are observed. By the time of planting, many buds appear on an apparently healthy bulb. After planting, chlorotic filamentous shoots are formed. These shoots do not develop and die after a while. The bulb becomes hard and stays in the soil for a long time without decaying.

The disease is carried by cicadas. Heat treatment of slightly diseased bulbs at a temperature of 45 ° C for 15-20 minutes completely destroys the pathogen.

Thrips is a small sucking insect with an elongated body (its length is 1-1.5 mm). Thrips parasitizes gladioli both during their growth and during storage. Sometimes, during flowering, thrips affects the flowers so much that the latter are not able to bloom. Larvae and adult insects, piercing tissue, suck sap from leaves, flowers and bulbs.

At temperatures below + 12 ° C, thrips goes under the covering scales of the bulbs and hibernates there. Bulbs affected by thrips are covered with a sticky bloom of juice in winter and mummified. With a strong defeat, they do not sprout.

Medvedka is an insect up to 5 cm long, dark brown in color with a chitinous coating. Medvedka damages the roots, bulbs and stems of gladioli. It settles most often on wet soils, near water bodies, on peat bogs and humus-rich soils. Leads mostly underground life.

Those who nevertheless decide to grow a montbrecia will be amazed at the beauty and grace of this flower and will become its constant adherents. And the appearance of montbrecia on the flower market will bring real pleasure to lovers and connoisseurs of beauty.

Watering

In the first weeks, before the emergence of shoots, watering is not required, the bulbs have enough moisture introduced during planting. In addition, the roots at this time, not receiving moisture in the upper layer of the soil, will tend to grow deeper, which means they will be longer and stronger and in summer they will be able to avoid overheating and drying out. And in general, a more powerful plant with a well-developed corm will grow. Only on rapidly drying sandy soils, additional watering is needed before germination.

Gladioli are watered weekly, bringing in about 10-15 liters of water per 1 sq. m, and in dry weather watered every 2-3 days. Abundant watering makes it possible to wet the soil to a sufficient depth, where a powerful (up to 30-40 cm) root system develops, capable of providing the aboveground part with everything necessary and holding a heavy, high peduncle.

During watering, in order to prevent fungal diseases, it is necessary to avoid water getting on the leaves; it is better to pour water into small grooves made in the aisles. Watering is desirable in the evening, but in such a way that the water that gets on the leaves still has time to dry before nightfall. In the process of watering, you can sometimes add a little potassium permanganate, wood ash to the water.

As the gladioli grow, they are slightly huddled and a layer of mulch is added. In general, I would like to say a little about mulch. Its use greatly reduces the labor costs of the grower, in particular, there is practically no need for loosening and weeding, the number of waterings is reduced, because moisture is better retained in the soil. And if you use good humus as mulch, then it will also serve as an additional top dressing, giving nutrients to the soil during watering.

When to dig up gladioli and store bulbs

Gladioli of early and medium varieties are dug up 3-4 weeks after flowering in mid-October. You need to dig out gladioli as carefully as possible, manually. In this case, the stem is cut off immediately after digging no more than 1 cm above the corms to prevent infection of healthy corms with diseases and pests. In well-ripened corms, you can immediately remove the old mother corms; in newly dug plants, it breaks off easily. Corms are also cleaned, in which roots and dirty bulbous scales are removed, at the same time, diseased plants are rejected, which should be thrown away immediately in order to avoid the spread of diseases. The corms are treated with fungicides and etched in a solution of "Oxyhom" or "Hom" for 30-60 minutes. After that, the bulbs are dried indoors for 3 weeks. After drying, the mother corms are removed along with the roots. In properly dried corms, it is removed easily and without damage, the fracture surface is smooth.

And how to store gladiolus bulbs in order to get beautiful flowers next year? The corms are stored without removing the covering scales, which protect them from drying out. Since most diseases appear on the corms primarily in the area of ​​the bottom, only the lower covering scales covering it can be removed in order to improve ventilation.

Gladioli are affected by fungal diseases - fusarium, sclerotinosis (or dry rot), septoria (or hard rot), botrytis (or brown heart rot), rust.

The most dangerous pests are gladiolus thrips and root bulb mites. During the growing season, gladioli are treated before flowering 2 times from diseases: for the first time, in phase 2 - 3 leaves, 20 g of "Oxychoma" are diluted per 10 liters of water, the treatment is repeated for 10-12 days. From pests: treatment with the insecticide "Confidor" is effective against thrips: 1 ml is diluted per 10 liters of water. Solution consumption 1 liter per 10 sq. m. From ticks treated with the drug "Agravertin": 2 ml per 1 liter of water. Solution consumption for 10 sq. M.

Varietal variety ... ..

The most common in our gardens and loved by flower growers are the following types of montbrecia:

• A very decorative variety that has bright, brown-orange flowers arranged symmetrically. In the center of the petals there are bright red spots that give the flowers a special charm. Plant height of this variety is about 60 cm, flowering starts quite late.
• Norwich Canary. The height of the plants of this variety is about 60 cm. The buds are colored bright yellow. The plant looks very decorative next to the contrasting flowers of other garden dwellers.
• Star of the East or Star of the East. A very popular variety of Japanese gladioli among our gardeners. It is the most beautiful and longest flowering variety. In addition, the Star of the East has the largest buds, reaching a diameter of 10 cm. Beautiful flowers in the shape of a star with a bright apricot-orange tint will certainly become the main decoration of the garden. The variety is tall, and can reach a height of 1 meter.
• Montbrecia Lucifer. This is the brightest variety in color of flowers. The flowers are painted in a juicy, tomato-red color. The plant can reach a height of one and a half meters. The stems very rarely tend to the ground.
• Montbrecia paniculata. This is the earliest flowering variety, the height of plants of this variety can reach one and a half meters. It stands out for its unusually colorful, orange-colored flowers, they open in June.

Japanese gladioli are fairly easy to grow. In terms of their unpretentiousness and resistance to many diseases, these flowers are superior to many other ornamental plants for the garden. Montbrecia does not need frequent watering; in regions with a warm and mild climate, the plant can not be dug out for winter storage.

When choosing a montbrecia for your personal plot, you need to pay attention to the height of the flower, because some varieties reach a height of only 50 cm, while others can grow up to one and a half meters. On any personal plot there must be a place for such an exquisite and unpretentious flower, it is able to decorate literally any corner with bright flowering

The incredibly bright color of the buds will delight your eyes for a long time, because the flowering of Japanese gladioli is quite long.

Botanical description of the plant

In the genus Montbrecia (Crocosmia), from the iris family, 50 species of these corms are known to be native to South Africa. Plants are very similar to miniature gladioli, only flowers and peduncles are more graceful. For which they are also popularly called the Japanese gladiolus. In floriculture, the widespread Montbrecia crocosmic and hybrid form - the garden montbrecia, obtained by the French breeder Lemoine in 1980 as a result of crossing the Golden Montbrecia and the Potts Montbrecia.

The names Montbrecia, or Crocosmia, are used approximately equally. The third name - Tritonia is used much less often. The name Montbretia is given to the plant by the name of botanist Ernest Cockber de Montbre and is considered obsolete. The more modern name Crocosmia comes from the Greek words "krokos" - "crocus" and "osme" - "smell", because the flowers smell like crocus (saffron).

The corm of the montbrecia is small, covered with 2-3 layers of reticular membranes. Narrow xiphoid leaves, 40-60 cm long, are collected in a fan-shaped basal rosette. 3-4 peduncles grow from 1 corm. Graceful thin stem can reach height 100 cm, very branched.

Paniculate inflorescences, consisting of small (3-5 cm in diameter) star-shaped and funnel-shaped graceful orange-red or yellow flowers. Flowering is abundant and long, summer-autumn - from July to September.

Where is it used?

The scope of use of the stethoscope purple is quite wide. Due to its high decorative characteristics and absolute unpretentiousness, the plant is an independent element of landscape compositions when forming the tier of flower beds and hedges. The flower is often used for practical purposes, skillfully masking unsightly buildings and household plots of the local area with it. The planted plant grows well and blooms profusely for 10 years, requiring little or no attention.

In addition, it gets along well with all decorative species and can be safely included in a complex composition as a vertical dominant. The flower looks harmoniously with all types of cereals and with plants such as echinacea and astilba. However, the main decorative disadvantage of the stethoscope is its late flowering. The plant wakes up rather late and begins to bloom only at the end of May. Therefore, in order for the flower bed not to be empty, it is recommended to plant crocuses, snowdrops, scilla or corydalis to the steep.

The plant has a mild sedative, diuretic, anti-inflammatory, anthelmintic and choleretic effect and promotes the discharge of phlegm when coughing. However, not the whole flower has useful properties, but only its roots, which are harvested in the fall, after the plant has faded. Their infusion is used for diarrhea, gastritis, jaundice, high blood pressure and to lower blood cholesterol levels.

Growing and care

Watering

This plant is very fond of abundant watering, but not too frequent. After watering and rains, be sure to weed the flowerbed with montbrecia and loosen the soil around the roots to provide air access to the bulbs. The most favorable soil for the development of gladiolus is a loose soil that is well permeable to air and water.

Top dressing

To accelerate the growth of Japanese gladioli, many growers feed them with nitrogenous fertilizers, which should be applied in the spring. Japanese or Chinese gladiolus is very responsive to making mullein tincture diluted with water 1:10. In parallel with the introduction of organic fertilizers, it is useful to apply potassium-based fertilizers or complex mineral fertilizers for flowering garden plants.

Post-flowering care

If your area has warm winters, then the Japanese gladiolus bulbs can be left to winter in the ground. But they must be thoroughly prepared for wintering. When the first cold weather comes, the entire aboveground part of the plants must be cut off flush with the ground. So the bulbs will ripen better during the winter and survive the cold. In southern regions, bulbs often tolerate winter well outdoors.

It is important to cover the bed with a 20 cm thick layer of fallen leaves in order to insulate the planting and protect it from freezing. A film is laid on top of the leaves, which is fixed with boards or stones.

At the first warmth of spring, the shelter must be removed so that the bulbs do not squeeze in the ground.

In order for your gladioli to bloom magnificently, it is necessary even in the southern regions to dig up the bulbs once every three years.

If you do not do this, then every year the flowering will get worse, and eventually too dense plantings of gladioli will stop blooming altogether. It is an unpretentious horticultural crop, but it still requires little attention and care.