Gladiolus in bloom

I don't don't about this pink and yellow one specifically but it is just
as lovely as all the rest. I believe it is aftershock 

People have been stopping in the street to admire my front garden since I turned it into a flower/vegetable garden hybrid.  I would say they are appreciating my innovative planting scheme and colour palette, but they’re not.  They all stop for one thing; my gladiolus.  They have been an absolute picture, and if when I was breaking my back chiselling away at the soil, digging through to Australia trying to plant the corms earlier in the year you would have asked ‘will it be worth it?’ I would probably say no. But it is. It truly truly has. 

My neighbour came over one day specially to tell me how wonderful Blackstar is, and how much his wife and him had been enjoying them,just after a cut everything in flower to take indoors which then made me feel bad.  This has been a problem.  They look so wonderful on mass in the garden that I am loathe to cut them and bring them indoors, which was kind of the whole point.  But I did have the good sense to plant them in line with the kitchen window so we can still enjoy them indoors, although I am never at home during the week when its light outside so my enjoyment is limited to the weekends.

They first ones to pop up was in Chitchat which are a light pastel coral colour, very feminine and pretty and also funnily enough the first ones I planted. 

Next up were one or two of my bright green variety Green Star. I always like green flowers because they seem slightly odd, if you know what I mean.  Very subtle though, and I would actually say having grown a whole bunch the brighter a gladiolus, or the more impactful the colour the better.

The ones everybody has loved are these, Black Star. They have the most beautiful dark velvety petals that really sing out. I remember the popular UK gardener Sarah Raven saying on her website that she only plants really dark ones and I thought she was crazy at the time, but I get it now.  They are truly splendiferous, and that’s saying something.  I feel the need to explore what other dark varieties there are for next year.

Magma is a lovely bright red variety, a really sock it to you shade, and that’s always good. The father keeps buying red gladiolus from the shop for indoors because I wont cut mine and they are just a completely different animal, smaller and the colour isn’t quite there. Mine are definitely a cut above.

I also really liked this more subtle purpley-pink tinged with beige one, Indian Summer, which reminds me of old furniture, it’s a bit old-fashioned in the colouring, a little faded, but I like it.

I know gladiolus have the reputation of being a bit naff, but I really think they are worthy of a space in every garden. Especially if you can plant them on mass like I have. I put in about fifty bulbs, and although they started flowering in mmmmmmm and still continue to this day, those fifty plants have continually made such a show. Although they initially came out in planting order, now I have a real mixture out at the same so its like a vase flowers but just planted in the garden.

I noticed the spent flowers at the bottom where trying to form what I presume are seed heads deep in where the flowers were, but I managed to resist temptation to allow these to form and cut off the spent flower stems to ensure good corms for next year. I also discovered that pulling out the withered flower heads once they die encourages buds still to come out further up to appear. This does mean there has been a little pile of dead gladiolus heads on the edge of the border from when i have had a two minute pick but can’t be bothered to go round to the bin. Because im that type of gardener.

I really can’t get enough. When I the mother was intent on returning her front garden to bushes I had intended to dig up the corms for planting next year, but now that I seem to have convinced her to stay with the annuals I plan to leave them where they are, save my back and just give them a protective layer of mulch instead.

That’s not to say I plan to rest on my laurels, oh no. Big plans have I.  There is always room for expansion and Im sure I can find a few more lovely varieties to add to the mix. I didn’t buy anymore this year at Hampton Court because I had only just finished planting this batch and I could remember the pain. But now there is a bit of distance between the back ache, and I im feeling spendy again.