Monday, May 11, 2009

Were do gladiolus plants come from?

what kind of colors do gladiolus have? how long do they stay around?|||The genus Gladiolus contains about 260 species, of which 250 are native to sub-Saharan Africa, mostly South Africa. About 10 species are native to Eurasia. There are 160 species of Gladiolus endemic in southern Africa and 76 in tropical Africa. The species vary from very small to the spectacular giant flower spikes in commerce.





The fragrant flower spikes are large and one-sided, with secund, bisexual flowers, each subtended by 2 leathery, green bracts. The sepals and the petals are almost identical in appearance, and are termed tepals. They are united at their base into a tube-shaped structure. The dorsal tepal is the largest, arching over the three stamenss. The outer three tepals are narrower. The perianth is funnel-shaped, with the stamens attached to its base. The style has three filiform, spoon-shaped branches, each expanding towards the apex.





The ovary is 3-locular with oblong or globose capsules, containing many, winged brown, longitudinally dehiscent seeds.





These flowers are variously colored, pink to reddish or light purple with white, contrasting markings, or white to cream or orange to red.





In temperate zones, the corms should be lifted in autumn and stored over winter in a frost-free place, and replanted in spring. Plants are propagated either from small cormlets produced as offsets by the parent corms, or from seed; in either case, they take several years to get to flowering size.

What features of the gladiolus flower you observed today would indicate its method of pollination? Explain.?

Pollination is the transfer of pollen from the anther of a flower, to the stigma. There are stamen and stigma in the gladiolus plants we looked at in the lab; to pollinate, wind, or animals like hummingbirds or bees are needed to transfer the pollen from one plant to the other. This would explain the sticky stigma; when a bee goes to the male stamen, the pollen would get stuck to the bee, and when it goes to a female plant, the pollen would stick to the stigma.





I hope I sent this in time. This question was the only one to give me a problem.|||I didn't observe a gladiolus flower today - weren't you paying attention? tut tut

When to plant gladiolus - zone 5?

I have about 200 gladiolus bulbs stored in a bedroom upstairs that are beginning to sprout. I live in Indiana, zone 5, how soon can I plant them outdoors?|||You can't plant them for at least until April. You need to put them in the refridgerator to temporarily stunt the growth. Your bulbs are getting confused by the warmth in the house and are sprouting way too early. If you plant them outside now, they will in all likelyhood get bit by a freeze.|||Call your County Extension Agent for your local area. They are very knowledgeable and provide services free of charge - your tax dollars pay their salary! They will even come out to your home, test your soil, and direct you as to any problems you are having with your soil, grass, plants, trees, etc.

I just bought a packet of dahlia, lily, and gladiolus bulbs. It is now almost June and...?

...and I am in zone 7B. The temps are well into the 80s. Can I still plant these bulbs or should I wait for the fall or even next spring? Will they be fine in their original boxes or do I need to do something?


I'd appreciate any advice.|||Just plant them. Gladiolus takes at least 8 weeks to flower. For the rest, if it doesnt bloom this year it may do so next year.|||Yep, just plant them now. Where I live you normally can't plant any of those until June 1 or so, and we get blooms fine. After you have planted yours you won't even have to lift them, zone 7b will allow all of those to be perennials.|||I would plant them. They may not bloom this year, but if you wait too long, they could dry out and die.|||Plant them because if you hold them over they may dry up and you wasted your effort.|||plant them.


We had bad weather here and still we are planting anyway.


nothing like watching something grow.

How many pollen grains are on one anther of a gladiolus?

Look to this link, page 25, there you find the pollen-ovule ratio of Liliaceae with some more informations about the number of pollen:


http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:Feg...


Hope you can estimate now for species Gladiolus.

Gladiolus fungus problem plz help?

I have a white flowering glad and it is 2 months old it is in sunny area and temp here is around 25 degree celcius. I have seen some black spots on the leaves and tip of leaves is getting yellowish is it due to fungus coz my soil is not that well drained.





what do i do now is there any easy solution.|||This is not alot you can do at this point. You can mix some compost tea and put on the plant leaves, this may help some, but you need to get your soil to drain better.

Can we get double number of gladiolus next year.?

i have a small garden. and i want to plant gladiolus for trial. so i dont know if it doubles. and i dont know what to do with them for getting it doubled. other bulbs do multiply ... but i m not sure about this. how?|||just plant them in the ground. over the course of the season they will make babies all on their own. In the fall dig them up and you will find little bulbs attached to the bottom,sides of the bulb. You can then take the babies plant them in an area and let them grow. depending on where you live you can leave them in the ground all year around. If you read up on them it will tell you to dig them up in the fall store them in a dark dry cold place. Come the spring time take off the ther outer brown husk and re-plant them. Good luck|||they do double,but it takes a while. By that time you should have a friend that's a gardener to give some to.

I like Gladiolus but the squirrels like them too!?

I have planted several bulbs but each morning I find them dug up and gone. What can I do to keep the squirels away ?|||Go to the hardware store and buy some hardware cloth, it is heavy gauge screen that has 1/4 to 1/2 inch holes in it. Make a cage for your glad bulbs, about 3 inches high, a few inches wide and also a few long, make the top so you can close it and wire it shut. Build as many as you need.





Dig a trench for the cage, put in a little dirt, then the bulbs, and some more dirt. Close and secure the cage, then cover with dirt or mulch.





Caging bulbs works great for gladiolus, tulips, crocus, and other squirrel treats :]|||The best method of Grey Squirrel control is the Kania Trap 2000. It is effective, humane kill, no re-locating. Place the trap 5-7 feet above the ground on a tree trunk, under eves, or in an attic away from children and non- target species. Best bait is peanut butter, or nuts in their shells.|||lay chicken wire on top of ground. Can have wire slightly higher than ground by putting something like bricks under the wire. Chicken wire has large enough holes for plants to even grow through and allows plenty of sunshine onto dirt. Squirrels, cats, dogs don't like the wire.|||Try this, it worked for me.


2tbsp cayenne pepper


2tbsp Tabasco sauce


2tbsp chili powder


1tbsp Murphy's oil soap


1qt warm water


Mix all together,pour into handheld sprayer, and liberally spray plants. Good Luck and happy gardening

How many seeds are in a mature gladiolus fruit?

Are you meaning the corm, which you plant, or the seeds that are produced after flowering? I'm not really sure, so I'll give you information on propagation using either method, if I can.





In a gladiolus corm there are babies that grow on top of the "mother" corm. At planting if there are no babies, plant the corm, and by next year there will be some if you feed the plant. You can dig up the corm after the foliage dies to the ground, and divide the corm at that time. There is no set amount of "babies"...it will vary.





"When growing from seed, sow in September. The seeds generally germinate well and seedlings appear after two to four weeks. Water thoroughly all through the growing season. However, flowers will only be produced from the second season onwards." There is no set number of seeds.





Happy Gardening!

Will my gladiolus bulbs dissintegrate if i leave them outside in the ground during winter?

yes, u have to dig them up and put them in a brown paper bag in the basement over winter.|||zone 7 and higher stays in the ground ...|||I live in zone 7 and leave mine in the ground, in a colder zone you may need to dig them up.

Will my dwarf gladiolus recover?

I live in a condo complex and the lawn service dumbass just chopped off 2/3 of each of my dwarf gladiolus nanus plants. I have about 15 of them. They have been in the ground for over 2 months. This is my first year with these bulbs. Is there anything I can do to help them recover? This has ruined my day. I AM SO MAD!! Thanks VERY much for your reply.|||if u just chopped the leaves down then ur in luck cuz they haven't started to shoot their flowers up yet! calm down... they'll be fine! they should start to send the flower stalk up any day now! maybe by the end of the month!|||Water them with sugar water very generously.