Gladioli fit perfectly into any flowerbed, however, to enjoy the riot of colors, you need to plant these flowers correctly.
The time for planting gladioli depends on the region. Thus, in the south people plant them already at the end of March – beginning of April, and in the middle zone they wait until the end of April – beginning of May.
Preparing the bulbs
An important stage that consists of several tasks.
1. Sort out the bulbs. You need to weed out the diseased, damaged, and rotten ones.
2. Etching the bulbs will help protect the flowers from bacteria and fungi. For this, either special compounds are used or a folk remedy is prepared: 100 g of garlic juice per 1 liter of water.
The bulbs are placed in the prepared solution for 3 hours.
3. Germination. A few weeks before planting, the bulbs are placed in a dark and warm place. They will sprout on their own.
Thus, the preparation of gladiolus bulbs consists of the “three P’s” rule: sort, treat and germinate.
When to plant
Optimal for gladioli is when the soil warms up to +10 °C and above. Experienced gardeners do not rely on specific dates, but monitor the weather forecast, since recurrent cold weather can catch up in May.
How to plant correctly
The soil for gladioli is fertilized with humus and ash. The soil is dug up so that it is loose. Gladioli are planted in a sunny place; the flowers do not like shade.
The holes are made at a distance of ≈20 cm. If the bulbs are planted in rows, then a distance of 30 cm is left between them.
Some gardeners lower the corms to a depth of 10-20 cm. But in more common cases, the depth is more modest: 4-5 cm for large corms and 2-2.5 cm for small ones.
