Hoe gladiolen verzorgen?

Gladiolus bloom from July to September. Once the gladiolus tubers have been planted, it is important to keep the soil moist. Fertilizing the soil is not necessary when the tubers have just been planted, but it is necessary as soon as the first flowers bloom. 

What food does a gladiolus need?

Plant gladioli in nutrient-rich, calcareous, airy and well-drained soil. When the first flowers appear on the stems, you can fertilize the soil with garden or bulb plant manure.

Remove faded flowers

A gladiolus blooms from the bottom of the stem to the top. When the bottom flowers have finished blooming, remove them. Work your way up and when the entire flower stem has finished blooming, cut it off. Do leave the leaves on, they contain the nutrition that the tuber develops with.  

What should you do with the gladiolus tubers in frost?

In autumn, the remains of the stem turn yellow, which means that the foliage is slowly dying. When the foliage has died, cut off the remaining part of the stem and remove the tubers from the ground. 

Sometimes it has already started freezing when the foliage has not yet completely died off, remove the tubers immediately, because they cannot withstand frost. 

A handy way to remove the tubers from the ground is by means of a fork, take care. Put the fork in the ground and slowly lift the tubers out of the ground. After digging up, first cut off the leaf a few cm above the tuber and let the tubers dry for a week. After this you can remove the old leaf and the old tuber. You often see a new tuber sitting under the drained old one. Beads (bulbs) are often also formed, the largest of which you can plant again next year to continue breeding. A flower will not immediately emerge here, the brood bulbs need several years to develop into a complete plant. 

Store the tubers in newspapers in a dark and dry place between five and ten degrees. This keeps the tubers at a pleasant temperature and prevents them from drying out. For the best result, you can check the tubers from time to time to make sure they are not too dry. Spray some water on the tubers if this is the case. If the tubers get too dry, they will shrivel up and stop flowering. 

You can plant the tubers again around April, after the last frost.

Propagate gladiolus 

You can multiply the tuber of a gladiolus. During the development into flower, the tuber quickly gets 1 or 2 new small tubers under the old tuber. There are also small brood balls on the bulb. To propagate, you can plant these new small tubers, also called beads, in the spring. From this grow 'pips'. These eventually develop into a full-fledged and deliverable gladiolus tuber. 

The seeds can also be planted from the flowers. When the flowers of the gladiolus have finished blooming, there are small seeds in the core. You can take it out and store it in a cool and dry place. Plant them in the first half of the plant's growing season (between April and June). 

You sow the seed in a layer of seed compost in a light place but not in full sun at a temperature of 20-25 degrees. Cover this soil with some sieved compost and fine grit. 

This is best done in a (homemade) incubator. The soil should always remain moist. The seeds develop into green shoots after a few weeks. Make sure you put them outside in the summer so that the mini tubers can develop in the sunlight. 

When small tubers develop, plant them in the ground. If all goes well, you can then dig up the new tubers in the fall and plant them the following season for beautiful, home-grown gladiolus in the garden.