Gladioli in your garden: 4 top tips

1. Can you make the same gladioli bloom year after year?

Depending on conditions, your gladioli will bloom for one or two more years. Take the gladioli out of the ground in the fall, store them in a dry, cool place like your shed, and plant them again in the spring. It’s best to store gladioli bulbs in a dry place at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius. They don’t do well with warmer or colder temperatures (especially frost) while they’re in storage. Store them right, and you can often enjoy the same bulb several times over.

You can also leave the gladioli in the ground, but only if you’re sure the ground won’t freeze, or the bulbs will die off. The best thing is to buy a batch of fresh gladioli each year: supplement what you already have and reuse the existing bulbs as best you can.

2. Will only one flower or stem come out of a bulb?

Most of the time, one bulb will give you one flower stem. Sometimes you get lucky, and two or more stems come out of one bulb. This is most likely to happen if you plant large bulbs (size 12 and up).

3. Do gladioli attract bees?

Gladioli are true magnets for bees and insects. When they’re blooming, you’ll be amazed by the number of bees constantly flying around. As a result, the Forever Bulbs show garden is bee paradise. When we photograph the flowers, we really have to do our best not to have a bee in the picture! 

4. Are gladioli likely to fall over?

Some gladioli can grow quite tall. This varies from type to type. Our Bordiolus gladioli, for instance, only grow to be about 70 to 90 cm tall. Other Forever Bulbs varieties can grow to a length of 90 cm or more, some of them up to 130 cm long.

Yet, gladioli generally withstand wind well. Some growers also grow gladiolus outdoors, dealing with wind and other conditions, and they manage to sell to the flower trade throughout the season. Plus, we select our varieties for the firmness of their stems to make our clients can enjoy sturdy gladioli. That means that thinner-stemmed varieties drop out of the race, so you can be sure you’re getting strong gladioli when you buy a Forever Bulbs variety.

Want to know more?

Hopefully these tips help! Let the growing begin. Or maybe you want to learn a little more before you start planting? In that case, have a look at our blog posts How to plant gladioli bulbs and Planting gladioli: when is the right time? to get informed and inspired.

And don’t forget to follow us over on Facebook and Instagram to be inspired by the versatility of gladioli!