Don't Touch Those Glads!!!

I love Gladioli. The majestic stalks reaching high, displaying their magnificent flowers in a myriad of colors. But, love them as I do, I am tired. Tired of digging up the bulbs every fall, storing them, and then planting them again in the spring.

A couple of years ago, I decided I wasn't going to dig them up anymore. After all, I had some hardy Glads now that look just as pretty, so why go through all that trouble with the others? So I left them in the ground, forever compost.

Imagine my surprise, when, the next spring, the Glads that I have left in the ground to die were alive! There they were, their little shoots poking out of the damp soil. "They aren't supposed to do that!" I thought. But there they were, in my Michigan zone 5, in an open, unprotected area,- living.

They did come back that year, as large and as healthy as ever. And so they do every year, making bulblets and spreading.

So I am challenging you. Leave them in the ground this fall and see if they don't come back next spring to once again reach their tall flower stalks to the warm summer breezes.

If you do not see the table at the left, please click here.