It’s time to plant Gladiolus callianthus (syn Acidanthera) in pots for flowering in late summer.
These are elegant plants, tall to around 1 metre, known colloquially as the Abyssinian Gladiolus.
They are not reliably hardy, so either harvest the bulbs before winter or grow them in pots.
During the winter, my pots reside in a frost-free glasshouse, although to keep them safe from marauding vermin it is better to decant and store them in paper bags in a cool dry place.
In containers, I plant three layers of corms, one above the other, which gives a generous display of their demurely nodding, funnel-shaped, sweetly scented, white flowers, each with a maroon blotch at its centre.
It occurred to me that these would make excellent wedding flowers for anyone getting married from August onwards.
Plant breeders have been making some intriguing crosses with this plant.
There is now a plant marketed as Gladiolus ‘Lucky Star’, which is a hybrid, but with a paler pink blotch at its centre.
I purchased my corms from Farmer Gracy online where they still refer to them as Acidanthera murielae.
They also offer a pink form of this heavenly plant.
Whether or not either of the above are better than the original, I know not and I won’t until I have tried them.
I have ordered corms of each so come late summer we can compare, although I suspect that the original will be hard to beat.
As corms, these are remarkably good value, and they make exceedingly good cut flowers so why not plant some in a spare plot for this purpose.
When planting them in the garden, stagger your plantings at three-week intervals so that you have a succession of blooms.
This works with lots of bulbs, corms, and tubers so it’s worth experimenting.
If, like many gardeners, you have a group of plants in pots for display, I pass on to you a rather good thing that I observed last year.
Pots of green flowered Gladiolus emerging through a sea of colour look fantastic, so a staggered planting of these will embellish your garden perfectly.
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