Ignoring last year when a mouse or something got into my box and ate every last one I have done this for several years and had them re-bloom. I dont even take special care with them - had them in a bucket in the back stairwell or in a bag in the laundry room. I bought a ton more this spring (they are really almost cheap enough to treat as annuals)and dug them a couple of weeks ago and am drying them in the shed where they will stay until temps start dropping below freezing. I think I will not put them in the semi-heated furnace room that apparently has rodents but back in the laundry room.

Yes, they're quite easy to dig and hold over the winter and get to rebloom the next season. I'd just dig them, dry them and put them in a pair of old panty hose and hang on a nail in a dark corner of the basement.

They are inexpensive so would always buy a new bag each spring too. They're really so inexpensive from the big box stores, it hardly seems worth going to the trouble to save them from year to year.

The name was changed a few years ago, for good reason, to Gladiolus callianthus. They grow like other Gladiolus, store like Gladiolus, and differ in blooming later with fragrant flowers. Here they do not need to be dug until they multiply so much they take over the garden. Al

Thanks everyone for your input. That's what I was thinking about them being so cheap, almost not worth the bother of saving them, and yet I have trouble throwing healthy bulbs into the composter. I have never had luck with saved glads reblooming the year after, and of all the acidanthera bulbs I saved from the previous year, only one rebloomed.

At the moment, everything else is dormant in the garden - many frosts have come and gone, and yet, I still have these blooming in pots - the gorgeous white blooms like birds in flight. Of course I potted them rather late (early July I think).

I just lifted my glads and acidantheras this afternoon. This was my second year with this batch of acidantheras, and I had plenty of blooms this year, although so late in the year I was beginning to wonder if they were going to bloom at all.

When you lift your acidantheras, do you keep the clumps together, or break them down to individual bulbs? And do you trim the stalks all the way back to the bulb? Last year I kept the clumps together and only trimmed the stalks back to just below ground level, so I know that works, but I wonder if it's "best practice".

Thanks,
David

I'm not sure there's a best practice; it all seems to work. I've trimmed the stalks all the way down to a short nub once completely browned out and dry and have broken the clumps apart as well. I suspect they'd be fine left joined.

Did not put any in this season, but recall from the past few years, acidanthera is a late bloomer here in zone 4 Minnesota. Setting good buds and starting to bloom sometime in August into September. The foliage would still be green and pretty fresh when it was time to dig them up.

Breaking them up I think is better. When planted with more space to develop roots I think they do better. If left in a solid clump long enough I would expect the blooming to diminish. Al

I've had mine in pots in a southwest facing window all winter. The foliage is still green. I'm hoping that when I plant them this year I'll get blooms. I've got my fingers crossed anyway.

If I understand your post, your bulbs did not bloom or go dormant last year. I will also be curios as to what will happen this year with bulbs having no dormant or resting period. I have had tuberose do this and actually be blooming about this time. Please let us know what results with Acidanthera. Al