Common wisdom is to plant glads starting in March. Plant at 2 week intervals for longer bloom period.

Recently I learned they can be planted quite deeply...like 8 inches and they won't need to be staked.

Hope someone with experience can tell us if that's true.

cynthia

Thanks for the reply Cynthia. I'll wait awhile to plant them.

I think 8 inches is a bit too deep. I'm not an expert but I thought you should plant them at least 2 inches and then you wouldn't have to stake.

Optimum depth for large gladiola corms is 6-8 inches. Cynthia is correct that planting at the deeper depth usually means you don't have to stake.

If the corms are really small you'd want to go with 3-4 inches.

Plant deep ( 7-8 inches ), first year you won´t need staking, the next year you will if you plant shallow ( 5-6 inches ), gladiolus corms can grow quite large in the first year so if you plant shallow by next year they will actually be only 3-4 in deep and fall over. Every 3-4 years you need to lift the corms and divide them, gladiolus grow huge numbers of cormlets every year.

Thanks for all the info! I'll plant them a little deeper, and report how that goes...

Anchita

So glad I found this post...I planted a bunch of gladies all over last year and most of them had ended up leaning waaayyy over or falling completely when in full bloom...The different varieties had different planting depths I don't have time to stake all and better yet, prefer not to...I want to keep them as they are so beautiful...

juanital

I grew some gladiolus this year and when I dug them up, I noticed that the bulbs had grew into another bulb on top of it. After reading this posts, I think the correct term is "corm" (I'm very new to gardening, sorry). Now I have a corm with one on top of it. How do I divide them? Do I just pull them apart? Do I need any eyes like some others need? And should I wait until spring to divide or is the now okay?

The old corm is the one on the bottom - that one is finished and shrivelled and can be discarded since it will never grow again. When you've dug them up, dried them, and the foliage turns brown - you can cut that off close to the new top corm. When the corms are dry, a light twist of the wrist will separate the old corm from the new one. Should come away quite easily without damaging the new corm or its tissue papery covering.

You were right, some of them came off very easily and the others just took a twist or two. I went ahead and threw the old ones away because they were very shrivelled. Thank you for your info!!!

I was amazed at how some Star Lily Glads multiplied in their first year! Finally found the shriveled old bulb on the bottom of new one after they dried and twisted them off.

I don't think they should be divided after only one year, correct? A few have side cormlets that are almost an inch from bottom to tip. Will those little side cormlets bloom in addition to the main new bulb? I'm assuming they need another year or two to develop internal bloom baby and then I divide them.

The only reason I had the bulbs in my hot little hands because they had to be dug up since I was rearranging the bed for next Spring. I wouldn't even have known about twisting off the original corm if I hadn't read this forum.

Thanks!