The beautiful gladioli with their towering flower stalks are among the most magnificent flowering plants in our gardens. Unfortunately, the beauties are not hardy and will need to be dug up in the fall and overwintered in a frost-free spot.
The gladioli bulbs are dug up in autumn for overwintering
In summer: leave green on the gladiolus bulbs
Once the gladioli have faded, only the flower stalk may be cut first. All green should be left on the plant. This allows the tuber to continue growing and gather enough strength for the next year by autumn.
Dig up tubers in October
One of the care measures in the autumn garden is digging up the gladioli bulbs. First, shorten the foliage to about ten centimeters. Then, when digging up the bulbs, do the following:
- Carefully dig deep into the ground with a digging fork and lift the clod.
- Collect the onions, separating the small bulbs from the mother tuber.
- Roughly remove the soil from the onions and let them dry.
Off to winter quarters
Gladiolus bulbs should only be placed on newspaper for about a week. During this time, the soil dries up completely and can be easily removed. Even shriveled and dead parts of the onion are carefully broken off on this occasion.
There are different ways to overwinter the gladiolus bulbs. You can these:
- layer loosely in wooden boxes
- wrap individually in newspaper
- bury in a container filled with a sand-soil mixture.
However, it is important that the room is not warmer than five degrees, as the gladiolus bulbs inevitably start to sprout at higher temperatures.
tips
High humidity, which prevails in many basement rooms, inevitably leads to the formation of rot. You can prevent this by overwintering the gladiolus bulbs in dry sawdust and changing them regularly.