gladiolii, little corms on large corms

[Lily]

We dug up the gladdiolii corms, to dry in the shed.  There are dozens of little corms growing on each large corm.  If I manage to keep them and dry them can I plant them out next year and are they likely to flower next year. There must be thousands of these little things

Lily

[Lily]

[flowerlady]

Lucky you, how exciting!  What variety are they?

You can most certainly plant them out next year, but I am sure they will be too small to flower in their first year.  Bulbs have to have some bulk on them to support a flowering season, perhaps the following season.

Whenever I do not want to loose any tiny bulbs, I plant them up in flower pots and then sink that into the flowerbed.  That way they don't get to dry out and can grow on undisturbed.

And I don't forget where I put them  ;D

[Lily]

Thanks for the tip flowerlady.  Not sure what the variety is but I bought them from sainsburys, they were just a box of mixed gladioli.  I think I will pot the little corms up to try and not let them dry out.  There were plenty left scattered on the lottie so it will be interesting to see if they survive.

I was quite surprised to see so many little corms,  I hope at least some of them survive.  We were picking the flowers for weeks so I hope we manage to get a good display next year.

Lily

[Palustris]

They take a few seasons to reach flowering size. To help the process, feed with a foliage feed every 2 weeks or so during the summer, until the leaves stat to die down. Watch out fro thrips (tiny insects) the leaves go silvery coloured and nasty looking. A systemic insecticide ill get rid of them, if you need to.