Thursday, December 3, 2009

Gladiolus


Gladiolus cultivar with petals showing streaking from a mosaic virus caused by thrip
These 'Glads' are flowering now in a garden I am working on and have probably been in the ground for 30 or more years. They were once a popular garden flower in Australia and are fairly easy to grow if you are prepared to follow a fairly stringent spray programme for pests.They can be planted from corms which are usually available in Autumn from mail order bulb Nurseries.
The name Gladiolus is derived from gladius meaning sword-leaves ,so just think of Russell Crowe and the movie Gladiator as reference.


1 comment:

  1. Spray, glads? I never. There are ancient glads here that go back for more than fifty years.

    Diseased bulbs get tossed.

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