As spring approaches, we note more articles appearing regarding the growing of summer bulbs and in particular gladioli. See Sarah Raven’s article here
Gladioli, as are noted in many articles, are very easy to grow and excellent for using as cutflowers. There are a huge range of colours and varieties available but our favourites have always been the single coloured tall varieties rather than bi-colours or ruffled types.
Last year was the first time we tried growing them in our allotment, which benefits from full sun. Previously we have tried growing them in a few areas of our garden without great success, but in hindsight it’s probably because they were grown in semi-shaded areas and did not get full sun at any time. When we planted them in the allotment, we put the first batch of 20 corms in Early April, planting 10 at 8 inches deep and 10 at 12 inches deep. We did further plantings with the same numbers and depths every 10 -14 days for a further month. The reason for this was to hopefully get a longer flowering period that we then cut and displayed in the house. By doing it this way, we acheived our prolonged period of blooms
Jo Woodland
Direct Bulbs Gardening Blog 