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One of the first flowers with which people began to decorate their gardens were gladioli. Planting gladioli in the ground in spring may seem like a very simple process and does not require specific knowledge. But that's not true. A housewife who has planted these flowers in her garden at least once knows: for gladioli to bloom in large inflorescences and have a tall and strong stem, you need to properly store the bulbs of these flowers and know exactly when to plant gladioli in open ground. This is what this article will be about.
Planting gladioli in open ground
To figure out how to properly plant gladioli in the spring, you need to know the characteristics of these flowers.
Gladioli were grown in ancient Rome; they were the favorite flowers of the Egyptian pharaohs and were considered a talisman of gladiators. These flowers are also called swordweed because the pointed and long leaves look like weapons.
Swordfish should be grown in well-lit areas; this flower loves the sun. Strong wind or draft is detrimental to gladiolus, because these are tall plants with long stems that can easily break.
The soil for skewering should be loose and not prone to moisture accumulation. The best soil for a flower is sandy soil with the addition of peat and humus.
Gladiolus bulbs
Skewer is a bulbous plant, that is, it reproduces by forming small shoots – “babies” – on tubers. Due to the fact that the climate in Russia is quite harsh, winters are frosty and cold, gladioli bulbs in the fall you have to dig it up and store it in the basement until the next season.
Speech tubers are usually dug up in October, when the flower has faded and its stem becomes dry and easily separates from the tuber. The collected bulbs need to be examined to identify diseased or rotten, lethargic specimens. It is better to throw away such tubers immediately - they will not be able to overwinter and turn into beautiful flowers next season.
The remaining bulbs are left without removing the husks, placed in sand and lowered into the cellar or basement. The fennel tubers remain there until spring.
When to plant gladioli in open ground
Many flower growers who grow flowers for sale grow gladioli in greenhouses and heated greenhouses. In this case, the skewer bulbs are taken out for germination at the end of January or at the beginning of February. After 2.5-3 months, the gardener will receive the first flowers and will be able to sell them profitably.
If you plan to plant gladioli in spring in unprotected soil, you need to lift the bulbs from the basements a little later.
There are several ways to grow fudge:
- The usual method is to plant all the bulbs in one day. To do this, you need to take into account the climate in the region, and when, presumably, the earth warms up to 10 degrees, the germinated tubers can be planted in the holes.
- The continuous flowering method allows you to decorate your garden with blooming fennel from June to October. To do this, the first part of the bulbs is taken out for forcing at the beginning of March, each subsequent batch of tubers must be taken out for germination at intervals of two weeks. In the same sequence, the tubers are planted in the holes; as a result, the gladioli will bloom continuously, new plants will constantly replace those that have already bloomed.
- Taking into account the climate zone is also very important - the sword cannot be taken out into open ground until the ground at a depth of 10 cm warms up to 10 degrees Celsius. Bulbs are afraid of frost, gladioli do not develop at low temperatures and lack of sun; in conditions of high humidity and prolonged rain, tubers are easily affected by fungal infections and die. Therefore, the timing of planting gladiolus bulbs should be compared with the climate and weather in a particular region. For example, in Siberia, swords are planted no earlier than the first half of May, and in the middle zone gladioli bulbs are transferred to the holes already in mid-April.
How to plant gladioli in spring
To grow beautiful and healthy flowers, you need to properly prepare the skewer bulbs for planting in open ground. To do this, on the appointed day, the tubers are taken out of the basement and carefully inspected. First of all, soft and rotten tubers are removed, hard bulbs are cleared of crusts and husks, and the “babies” are separated from them (they need to be grown separately).
If dark spots are found on gladiolus bulbs, you can try to cure them. To do this, cut off the affected area with a sharp knife and cover the cut with brilliant green.Before planting in a permanent place, the “wound” must be healed by the epidermis.
Before planting in the soil, you can pre-germinate the tubers - this will speed up the flowering of gladioli and will allow you to discard “dead” bulbs from which nothing will grow.
Germination of skewer bulbs is carried out in the following sequence:
- First of all, you need to disinfect the planting material. To do this, fennel tubers are placed for half an hour in a half-percent solution of potassium permanganate or any other antiseptic composition.
- In order for gladioli to have larger flowers, reach greater heights and be healthier, the bulbs can be soaked for a couple of days in a solution of boric acid (2 g per liter of warm water).
- Plastic or wooden boxes or individual pots are filled with a soil mixture: turf soil, humus, sand and peat. Wood ash, superphosphate and bone meal can be added to the same soil - all this contributes to the rapid development of gladioli.
- They make depressions in the ground and pour a little sand in there - the bulbs are placed on this layer and pressed a little.
- The tubers are covered with soil mixture on top and watered with warm water.
- Until the first shoots appear, boxes with bulbs should be kept in the basement or other cool place with a temperature of 15 to 18 degrees.
- When the sprouts appear, the boxes are taken out into the light: this could be a greenhouse, veranda or greenhouse. Here the soil is regularly loosened, watered and fed once every two weeks.
- When the weather permits, teenagers take them out into the open ground (this should be done around mid-April).
It is not at all necessary to grow gladioli first; you can get by with simpler preparation. The tubers removed from the basement and peeled are laid out in a warm place with constant access to sunlight (but not in direct rays).
Dry the gladiolus bulbs for a couple of days.
During this period, many gardeners recommend spraying the tubers with a spray bottle, however, it is better not to do this. In conditions of high humidity, roots will appear from the tubercles, which easily break off when planting gladioli in a flowerbed - this will slow down the growth of flowers and delay their flowering time.
If the storage and preparation of gladiolus bulbs was carried out correctly, in a couple of days root tubercles about three mm in size and sprouts from 1 to 10 cm in height will appear on the tubers.
Those specimens that remained in their original form (did not produce any sprouts or tubercles) are thrown away.
Planting prepared bulbs in a flowerbed
The main thing that a gardener should be able to do is to properly deepen the skewer bulbs. The rule here is: The dimensions of the hole should be three times the diameter of the bulb. Then the gladiolus will be able to develop correctly and bloom quickly.
Pour a handful of dry sand into the prepared holes and carefully place the tubers there. Cover with dry soil and water generously with warm water.
It is equally important to maintain sufficient distance between bushes. Gladioli are powerful and tall plants; they must have enough water, light and nutrients. Therefore, it is impossible to plant the skewer closely - the distance between the holes must be at least 70 cm.
Flowers planted this way will be large and strong.
Gladioli care
Caring for gladioli planted in a flower bed is quite simple; you just need to perform a number of manipulations:
- When the sprouts reach eight centimeters, they need to be covered with a five-centimeter layer of humus. This procedure is necessary in order to prevent excessive evaporation of moisture from the soil and protect the stems from overheating.
- Once every two weeks, in the intervals between neighboring bushes, it is necessary to loosen the soil. Do this carefully, trying not to damage the bulbs and roots.
- Gladioli need to be watered using a special technology. Not far from the stem, grooves are made into which water is poured. If you water flowers at the root, you can damage the fragile leaves and stems.
- A tall sword can break from the wind or under the weight of its own flowers, so when the first buds appear, the gladioli are tied to supports.
Growing gladioli is quite simple; the most difficult thing in this process is deciding when to plant gladioli in open ground in the spring. But these beautiful flowers will “thank” the owner for his efforts and will definitely become a worthy decoration of any garden.
