Gladiolas

[John DeBoo]

Will cutting off the stem of already flowered Gladiolas aide them in growing or flowering again this season?

[SugarChile]

No, they will not flower again this year, no matter what you do. However, cutting the spent flower stem will prevent the plant from putting energy into seed production, which can help give the bulb more reserves for growing and flowering next year.

If you live in a cold winter area, you can dig and store the bulbs this fall. If you live in a mild winter area, you can just leave them in place. I'm in zone 6, and winters can be quite variable, so it's a gamble. I still prefer to dig and store them so that I can deal with all the little offset bulbs.

Cheers, Sue [e-mail] Zone 6, Southcentral PA

[SugarChile]

Not a good one 8-). You can try planting them a little deeper, and piling a loose mulch, like straw, around them once they are up and growing. You can grow them in-between tall bushy perennials that will give them some support. Or you can grow them in row and run sticks-and-twine along the rows, instead of staking them individually.

I grow mine in front of a row of cannas, which support them in the back, and run some twine along the front. They still sometimes flop sideways, but as I'm growing them mainly for cut flowers I don't worry about it too much.

There seem to be some variables involved--rain, soil fertility, bulb variety, etc, but I don't have any details.

Cheers, Sue [e-mail] Zone 6, Southcentral PA

[John DeBoo]

[B & J]

When I had "real" soil in Minnesota, I used a spade and dug a trench as deep as the depth of the spade, piled the dirt on one side of the trench, and placed the corms in the bottom of this trench. I then covered the corms to about a third of the depth of the trench. As they sprouted and grew, I gradually pushed in the remaining dirt until the trench was filled. Unless we had a severe storm when they were flowering, they seldom went over.

John