Despite the snow flurries, my unheated greenhouse is full of Gladioli and the scent these beauties produce. My blue colour form of G carinatus is probably my favourite, but could possibly be usurped by recently added corms to the collection. I also have other colour variations of G carinatus on order that are blue/grey and yellow, currently on there way here from South Africa.
The RHS Crocosmia trials were finalised last September and the results of three years inspection by Judges, Nurserymen and breeders have been published and are now up on an RHS site, I've provided a link below.
I'm pleased to say five of my plants received an AGM.
Seeds are now all cleaned, bagged and ready to go for the 2022 season, the majority are tristis crosses, which brings me to my Winter flowering species. They should start and show bud over the coming weeks, tristis usually being the first.
The final few Gladioli are now flowering, knocked back by the heat and the lack of rain, this tiny 40cm plant made it, it was found in amongst others and is very graceful.
The majority of Gladioli seed pods have been gathered, they ripen quickly and you need to be on your toes, as it doesn't take long for them to fully open and then there gone. Crocosmias take a lot longer and if I'm worried about rain and damp and they're getting close to ripening, i will cut the whole stem and put them in the greenhouse. Which will be the case this year.
Winter growing Gladioli are slowly emerging, but one surprise has been some tristis crosses. They initially grew for five months and then disappeared, but lo and behold they are up and growing brilliantly. So now I need to go back and check all the others, even those that had a full Summer growing season. Tristis characteristics coming through nicely on these.
