Gladioli: description, classification of varieties, planting in open ground and care (90 photos & videos) + reviews

The use of plants in landscape design

Due to its peculiarities, gladiolus is used only for group planting. Plants require support, specific care. Every year, the bulbs must be dug up, so the neighborhood with perennial flowers is excluded. The culture is combined with flowering annuals. There are a lot of examples of the use of gladioli in landscape design, photos confirm this. When planting plants, an appropriate retinue is selected, which complements the skewer, serves as a background for the royal flower.

He earned the love of flower growers thanks to his presentable appearance.

As a monoculture, a flower forms a gladularia. By combining the color combinations of the skewer, landscape designers and gardeners achieve colorful compositions. Plants are used in mixborders. Planting is done in the background, in the foreground the culture will overshadow the others.

Gladioli in the flowerbed are always given the leading role.

When creating a background for primroses and summer flowers, take into account:

• the height of the stem of the skewer, some large-flowered varieties grow over 2 meters;
• short budding, flowers bloom gradually, at the same time the upper buds of the spike develop;
• late flowering, this is an autumn flower.

But having blossomed, gladioli are in the lead in mixborder compositions, attract everyone's eyes, causing admiration.

In order for the composition to look harmonious, the regal flower needs an entourage, in which it is recommended to use less expressive specimens.

In landscape design, other vegetation is combined with a skewer. Ornamental undersized and medium-sized shrubs serve as decoration, conifers - as a compositional addition. The emphasis is on gladiolus landings. With this approach, the design will be harmonious. A combination with less expressive colors of the same shade or contrasting colors, which serves as a frame, is allowed.

The whole variety of gladioli is represented by more than 200 plant species, which, in turn, have over 1000 varieties.

For reference. Gladiolus is named because of the similarity of sharp leaves to the weapon of legionnaires - gladius. Later, the bulbs were believed to bring good luck in battle to Roman soldiers. Thanks to the myth, the flower became popular outside the borders of the empire.

If you use single copies in landscape design, the gladiolus will lose its majesty.

Rules for growing gladioli outdoors

Photo of gladioli

Gladioli do not tolerate high pH values. Acceptable indicators are RN 5.6 ... 5.8.dolomite flour
Useful article:How to improve the soil, its fertility, composition, structure

It is recommended to change the place of growing gladioli every two years.

Photo of gladioli bulbs

Important! When determining the planting depth of gladioli, take into account the structure of the soil and the size of the bulb. In heavy soils, the planting depth should be about three diameters of the bulb, and in loose soil, its diameter should be deepened by one more value.
Late varieties of gladioli should not be planted in the shade, otherwise they will not be able to please with their flowering

Three rules for growing gladioli - video

To prevent the formation of fungal diseases, it is necessary to ensure that the distance between the plants is maintained.The mode of watering gladioli is recommended as follows - once a week, but abundantly.

Popular varieties

The most popular are tall hybrid varieties with large flowers. By the shape of the flower, they are divided into:

• Butterfly-shaped - have closely spaced flowers with the original coloration of the pharynx.
• Primrose - up to 80 cm high, flowers are rare. The upper petal is up to 8 cm in diameter, its perianth overhangs like a hood.

Gladiolus flowers are divided in size into 5 classes with indices 100-500:

1. (100) Miniature - less than 6.5 cm. Height - up to 60 cm, in a triangular or primrose inflorescence of 15-16 small flowers with velvety, often corrugated petals. They are bred for growing in containers. The smallest are Small Walder (small miracle) and Wee Walder (tiny miracle) with pink flowers up to 5 cm.
2. (200) Small-flowered - 6.5-9 cm, in beauty they are not inferior to varieties with large flowers. The Cezanne variety has light red flowers with a yellow pistil and a dark spot on the petal. Bright yellow focus with cherry spot. These two classes have advantages in comparison with large-flowered plants: they have more open flowers at the same time, the stem does not need a garter, the flowering time is early, they are resistant to hot sun and rain.
3. (300) Medium-flowered - 9-11.5 cm. Variety Albit with a greenish spot on white petals. Arabienne night has juicy burgundy-crimson flowers. Elegy has velvety dark crimson.

Arabien Knight charm

1. (400) Large-flowered - 11.6-14 cm. Presented by varieties: Amethyst - pink with a dark red spot and dashes, Don Quixote flowers are velvety dark cherry in color.
2. (500) Giant - more than 14 cm. They have powerful stems covered with large flowers in the form of tropical butterflies, for which they got the name - gladioli butterfly. They begin to bloom in early summer and remain in bloom until mid-fall. The flowers of White Prosperity are of a spectacular white color, 15 cm in diameter, the height of the inflorescence is up to 1 m.

Refined Purity White Prosperity

Unusual delicate greenish-yellow color of Green Star flowers for the original look, long flowering among flower growers received the title of "stars". The arrow height may exceed 1 m.

Original color of inflorescences Green Star

Annuals

Gladiolus is a perennial plant, but it does not tolerate cold well. The frosty winter in Russia is not suitable for growing gladiolus as a perennial plant. In the fall, it is dug up, stored until spring, and planted again, growing as an annual.

Perennial

Wild gladioli are perennial. Gladiolus (or skewer) tiled (Gladiolus imbricatus) perfectly tolerates the winter near Moscow, even without shelter. With good care, it produces several inflorescences of 3-7 flowers of pinkish or purple-violet colors.

Gladiolus byzantine (G. Bizantinus) is also hardy. The flowers are small purple, turning into crimson with a white vein. Having planted in open ground, it does not need to be dug up in the fall and covered for the winter.

Dwarf

These species have advantages: they are compact, bloom early, do not need support. They have a stem height up to 60 cm, asymmetric flowers up to 10 pieces per inflorescence.

There are single-color varieties:

• "Charm" - pink;
• "Jade" is yellow-green.

And two-tone:

• "Nymph" is red and white.
• "Sunmaid" - mauve.

Additional Information! Recently Dutch breeders have bred a new group of dwarf gladioli up to 50 cm tall. They are not suitable for cutting, but they look great in flower beds.

By color

By color, hybrid varieties are divided into:

• Red gladioli - Baccarat, Zulu.
• Burgundy - Black Velvet.
• Pink - Prague.
• White - Tampere.
• Greens - Green Star.
• The yellow ones are Jester.
• Brown, smoky - Torino.
• Blue - the Gates of Paradise.
• Black - Ebony Beauty.

In addition to those listed, there are raspberry, salmon, orange, lilac and purple, blue.

By appearance, the petals can be:

• Simple;
• Terry;
• Folded;
• Corrugated;
• Draconic.

The arrangement of flowers is:

• Single row;
• Double row;
• The next one is zigzag, in a spiral.

By flowering time

Varieties are divided according to the time when gladioli bloom, the countdown starts from the day of planting:

Bloom

1. Early flowering - flowering begins at 71-74 days.
2. Early - bloom on the 80th day after planting:

• "May Day" is a velvety two-row inflorescence of intense red color.
• "First Snow" - pure white flowers with white stamens.

1. Medium - begin to bloom on the 90th day. For example, "Moscow white stone" - strongly corrugated white flowers with a creamy middle.
2. Late - bloom 100 days after planting. "Heaven" is a strong corrugation with large folds of flowers with rich crimson lower petals and juicy tints on the upper ones.

How and when to prepare onions for planting

In the Central regions of Russia, the maturation of children will be from 30 to 40 days for early and middle varieties of gladioli, for late varieties - from 40 to 50.

When the corms are ripe, it's time to start harvesting.

The gladiolus blooms and fades by the end of August and the beginning of September. As soon as only the upper flowers remain on the inflorescence, the stem can be cut off. Now it remains to wait up to 1.5 months before collecting the children.

The mass of a mature average child is 25-60 g, sometimes up to 120 g, and very rarely - up to 150. It is protected from external influences by a single dense dry scales - a shell.

Removing excess xiphoid leaves will help speed up the formation of strong, healthy bulbs. After cutting the peduncle, it is worth leaving no more than 4-5 bulbous leaves. For the same reason, harvesting begins with those varieties that have bloomed earlier than others.

The order of work is as follows:

1. The first to be harvested are blue, purple and cherry plants grown from bulbs for 2-3 years.
2. Then dig up the rest of the faded garden skewers.
3. Lastly, those gladioli that have grown from children are collected.

Let's get down to the kids

When the "harvest" of gladioli is harvested, gently shake off the dried soil of the bulbs, cut the peduncles by 5-6 cm and start separating the children, which are still firmly sitting on the mother's bottom, but on the largest of them on the apical bud one or two primordia can be seen leaflets.

The largest babies grow in early varieties, small ones - in those gladioli that bloom late.

Young onions are always lighter than the main mother, if the baby is of the same color, then this is a sign of the disease. You should not leave such a tuber, let alone plant it. Since reproduction by children is the best way, it is necessary to select the best planting material accordingly.

Possible growing problems

Despite the unpretentiousness of the species, it is often invaded by all kinds of pests. Due to improper care, gladiolus can get sick.

• Pests. The main parasites that harm the plant are thrips, mites, garden ants. Less often - common aphid. Timely treatment of the flower with insecticidal agents will not only protect the damaged plant from pests, but also serve as a prophylactic agent.
• Diseases. Most often, flowers are subject to fungal diseases. For prevention, it is necessary to process not only the plant, but also the planting material. Phytosporin is considered the best remedy for these purposes. Treatment with this drug can be carried out throughout the season.
• Signs of improper care. The most important sign proving that the plant has not been given due attention is the absence of flowers on the gladiolus. This trouble can arise due to untimely watering or poor quality care.

Gladiolus is a generally recognized royal species. Not everyone is able to grow this elegant work of art from a small bulb. The flower requires constant care and close attention. If the gardener is not confident in his abilities, then it is better to start by trying to grow something simpler and not so capricious. But, despite all the difficulties, the risk justifies the result.

Possible growing problems

The main danger is represented by diseases, fungal and bacterial, and insect pests.

Pests

Invasions of such pests as thrips, whiteflies, nematodes, and May beetles are more often annoying. Treatment of plants with karbofos will help to destroy pests. They give planting results next to the gladioli of calendula, onions, and garlic.

Diseases

Gladiolus suffers from fungal diseases (this is rot, bacterial scab), an infectious disease - botrytosis, viral diseases (this is mosaic, jaundice, ring spot).

The best remedy against diseases is their prevention: proper storage of planting material, use of disinfectants, destruction of diseased plants, disinfection of the soil. To combat diseases, fungicides, potassium permanganate solutions, and copper-containing preparations are used.

Signs of improper care

Violation of cultivation techniques, dense planting, inappropriate soil type, rare digging of the site, the preservation of plant residues and damaged plants on it lead to the appearance of diseases, contribute to the appearance of pests. The absence of flowering, the nondescript sluggish appearance of gladioli are the results of a violation of the storage conditions of corms, untimely treatment of plants from pests.

Arrangement of growing gladioli

Compliance with the rules of care guarantees lush flowering and a healthy look of plants. A child cannot cope with caring for a flower, but any novice florist will be able to grow a beautiful flowering plant.

Transplant to open ground

Drop off location

Gladioli love the sun. Therefore, for their planting, choose the most illuminated areas. If you plant this flower in a darkened part of the space, then your pet will not bloom luxuriantly. In addition, you cannot plant a capricious flower all the time in the same place. Landing sites need to be changed every 3 years. Gladioli grow best in beds where vegetables used to grow. In general, any soil is suitable for them. If the soil is too loose, then water more often, and if the soil is heavy, loosen more often.

Instructions

In general, planting gladioli resembles planting potatoes.

• A separate hole must be dug for each unit. The diameter of the hole is selected for its size. If the seed specimen has a diameter of more than 3 cm, then the hole should be 10 cm in diameter.
• Try to plant the bulb as deep as possible. Flowering depends on this. In addition, sand must be poured into the hole, filled with water with manure diluted in it and treated with "Fitosporin".

This way you will get excellent flowering and many gladiolus babies. Therefore, the most correct distance between the holes should be more than 20 cm. Cover the planting site with earth, and sprinkle it with sawdust on top. Then they act like this.

• In autumn, the soil under the gladioli should be dug up. If the soil is clayey, add sand. If on the contrary, add clay. The soil needs to be fertilized. Apply phosphate-potassium fertilizers.
• Dig up the soil additionally in the spring. Make a bed about 10 cm high. Before planting gladioli, treat the soil with Fitosporin.

Follow-up care

Excessive watering for gladioli is harmful, especially if the summer is rainy, otherwise your gladioli will get rotten. Therefore, ensure soil drainage near the roots. Like all plants, gladioli need to be fed with fertilizers (manure, compost). These flowers require regular loosening of the soil. We need to actively fight pests. All the main chores begin in about 2 weeks, when the first shoots appear.

Disease is best prevented. Therefore, treat your flowers with fungicides. The main enemy of gladioli is thrips. For this problem, gladioli are required to be processed in advance - when you see the first damaged 3-4 leaves. Chemical solutions help, but if you do not accept them, then treat your flowers with various decoctions of celandine or yarrow.This method is not very efficient, but it can help.

When gladioli gain strength and give persistent shoots, they must be tied up so that they do not break with gusts of wind. After the beginning of flowering, when the first 3 flowers bloom, cut off the shoot. Put it in water. The rest of the flowers will bloom on their own. Remember that the cut of gladioli must be appropriate. Before cutting off the shoot, you need to disinfect the knife. Dip it in potassium permanganate. Then count about 6 pairs of leaves and prick with a knife. Then unscrew the stem of the flower.

For information on how to properly grow a gladiolus from a baby, see the next video.

Classification of flowers with the names of popular varieties of this type

There are five generally accepted classes. Separation occurs according to the size of the flower.

• Mini, size 6-6.5 centimeters, height - no more than half a meter. Inflorescences consist of 12 - 15 flowers. The petals are most often corrugated. The most popular varieties are Small Walder and Wee Walder.
• Small - the size varies from 6 to 9 centimeters. The popular variety Cezan, like the Focus, has a double color.
• Gladioli are medium, the size of each according to generally accepted standards cannot be more than 11 centimeters. Flowers of the Elegy variety are richly crimson in color, outwardly reminiscent of velvet. The inflorescences of the popular species Albit are white, each with a green speck in the center.
• The next class is gladioli with large flowers. The size is 12-14 centimeters. The Amethyst variety has an uneven color and combines three colors: pink, burgundy, black. The Don Quixote variety, popular in Russia, is colored dark cherry.
• The giant varieties include plants with flowers over 14 centimeters. It is very difficult to acquire on the territory of Russia. The most famous are Green Star, White Prosperity.

Annuals

Due to the climatic features of Russia, gladiolus is grown as an annual plant.

At the end of autumn, the bulbs must be dug up, and only the next year they must be planted again.

Perennial

Only the so-called wild gladioli can be grown as perennials.

For reference! The tiled variety is able to endure even fierce winters. The inflorescences consist of five to six flowers, the color is pink or purple.

Dwarf

Miniature gladioli, or the so-called dwarf, are a favorite of all gardeners. They begin to bloom early, the stems are compact, the flowers are 7-8 per inflorescence. They can be one-color or two-color.

Medium grades include:

• Charm variety, pink color.
• Jade, lemon yellow flowers.

In this group, the most popular are:

• Nymph, white with red veins.
• Sun aid, purple flowers.

By color

There are eight common gladiolus colors.

• Red, the most popular Zulu and Baccarat varieties.
• Cherry, grade Black Velvet.
• Pink Prague.
• Gladioli white Tampere.
• The Green Star variety is colored green.
• Torino has dark brown flowers.
• The inflorescences of a deep blue color in the Vrata Raya variety.
• The most unusual representative is the black gladiolus of the Ebony Beauty variety.

By the shape of the edges of the petal

Gladiolus flowers are also divided according to the type of petals.

• simple;
• fringed;
• corrugated;
• dragonlike;
• in a fold.

Types of gladiolus flowers

By flowering time

On gladioli with an early maturity, flowers appear around the 70th day.

Plants are considered mid-season, which begin to bloom after the 90th day.

Late flowers appear only 100 days after planting in open ground.

Gladioli in landscape design

What plants are most commonly planted in garden plots? Those that require minimal maintenance and are resistant to weather disasters. What do designers prefer? Stable decorative crops that do not disturb the structure of the flower garden either before, during or after flowering. Gladiolus does not meet any of these requirements.

Winter gimp with gladiolus cube bulbs is replaced by anxiety: they will ascend - they will not ascend, if they are frozen - they will not freeze.A significant part of the flower garden remains expressionless for a long time. After the rain, the arrows that deviate from the vertical have to be tied to pegs. And when they finally bloom, they are mercilessly cut, because the first of September has come.

At the very beginning, it is necessary to clearly determine which flowers are intended for cutting, and which ones will serve as a decoration for the flower garden. We plant those that are cut separately. In the garden or in the non-front part of the garden. Well, if you decide to include gladioli in a landscape composition, you need to start by thinking over the assortment.

Large-flowered gladioli are the very luxurious ones that we are used to seeing in our gardens and bouquets. The most suitable place for them is a large ceremonial mixborder.

Small-flowered gladioli are a relatively new group for us. They are shorter and look much more modest. But this is precisely what makes them a versatile and convenient material. In addition to the traditional curtain in a flower garden, they are suitable for a local composition with stones and conifers, and for a large landscape rockery, and even for containers.

The problem with gladioli is twofold: firstly, they bloom late, and secondly, the curtain falls apart from rain and wind. You have to go for tricks. For example, you can plant gladioli between dense, spreading plants of medium height (small spireas, barberries, etc.) that can hold the stems. Or plant perennials around that hide unsightly ropes and pegs.

And, of course, it never hurts to compact the landings with the summer ones, that is, simply land the summer people between the gladioli. If you choose them by color (to match the middle of the future flower or just in the general range), they will greatly enhance the impression.

In all these cases, mind you, the ground is covered and gladioli seem to grow out of a dense mass of other plants. An uninteresting bottom remains off-screen, elastic inflorescences spike, and the flower garden is good all summer long.

Basic rules for growing gladioli

Growing flowers is not difficult if you take into account the rules of agricultural technology.

Seat selection

Gladiolus needs good lighting, light nutritious soil, and protection from the wind.

Important! In the northern regions, gladioli need to be planted in sunny areas, otherwise growth and flowering will be delayed. In the south, flowers need to be shaded to keep flowering longer.

For planting, choose a place that is even with a slight slope (50 °) to the south, this will allow not to linger with excess moisture and get additional heat to the corms.

White Prosperity

When can you plant

Gladioli can be planted when the soil warms up to 10 ° C, unpeeled tubers are comfortable at 5-6 ° C. If planted earlier, the corms will not be able to germinate, and with excessive moisture, they may die. For the Middle Lane, there is a recommendation - to plant gladioli from the last decade of April to the second decade of May. In a flowerpot or container, flowers can be germinated from the end of February.

What is the depth to make the beds

If there are a lot of bulbs, then the best advice is to make beds. With their width of 1-1.2 m, it is more convenient to care for the plants. It is advisable to arrange the beds in length from west to east or along the slope. It is better to plan rows across the beds. Since gladioli need to be planted different in size, this method will allow the flowers to receive uniform illumination, the soil between the rows also warms up equally.

Note! Large bulbs are planted from the north side of the garden, small ones from the south. Thus, weak plants receive the most favorable conditions for development and growth.

The planting depth is determined depending on the size of the tuber:

• large (1 cm and more) deepen by 4-5 cm;
• medium (0.5-2 cm) deepened by 3-4 cm;
• small (up to 0.5 cm) cover with a layer of soil no more than 2-2.5 cm.

The row length is also calculated based on the number of tubers:

• 40 pieces / 1 m large - the distance between the rows is 25-30 cm;
• 70 pieces / 1 m small - the distance between the rows is about 15 cm.