Topic: How do you grow Gladioli from seed

[daisymay]

HI everyone,

A couple of my gladioli, which I reliably informed are called:
acidantherus went to seed before I cut them down.

Any ideas how to grow them from seed, if this is possible?! when should I plant them etc...?

thanks

[Palustris]

Keep the seeds dry and cool over Winter Sow in March/April in standard compost in a little heat in the greenhouse or propagator. The germinate quite quickly. Sow in a deep container rather than a seed tray if possible. Do not prick out the seedlings, so sow thinly. Move the whole thing outside after frost danger has passed and sink the pot of seedlings in the soil somewhere sheltered. They do not mind a little shade. Feed with dilute liquid food every 2 weeks or so. At the end o f the season lift and store the cormlets dry over Winter and plant out following Spring a in shallow drill in rich soil, and so on and so on. They take about 4 to 5 years to reach flowering size.

[EmmaLou]

Oh good - now I can grow the ones I am being sent! I don't minding waiting so long for them to flower - they are so pretty it is definitely worth the wait.
 :)

[daisymay]

Brilliant Palustris - thank you very much.  :)

[Palustris]

One other point, the seeds in a gladioli pod are separated by thin platlelets which look like seeds but aren't. The seeds are the fatter ones.

[daisymay]

ooooh I hope I got the right bit now, got me worried. There were hundreds of them - small, light brown in a kind of flat casing which would make them catch the wind??

does this sound about right??  ???

[Palustris]

That's them. The seeds are much heavier and thicker though, so much easier to tell than it sounds.

[daisymay]

phew  8) :D :D

thank you x