WELCOME TO MY GARDENING BLOG!

I obviously hope you enjoy browsing through the postings on here - do feel free to leave comments as it's always good to see who's visiting and to hear about other people's experiences - after all you never stop learning do you?

If you've any gardening questions or you live in Brittany and are looking for some gardening help - be it design work, planting or general gardening or you simply would like some advice, please don't hesitate to CONTACT ME or call me on 0033 661 77 23 89 (from UK) or 0661 77 23 89 (from France).

Happy gardening!

Thursday 29 March 2007

Pick of the bunch…


Gladioli come in many varieties and are planted largely for their value as a cut flower. They are grown abundantly in France and can often be found in the vegetable garden grown in neat rows. Each stem lasts around 2 weeks, but if planted over a period of several months their colourful blooms can be enjoyed throughout the summer.

Prepare the planting area with compost or well-rotted manure. Where the soil is particularly heavy, add a few handfuls of grit to aid drainage. Then during March, plant the corms (the bulb-like underground stem) in rows if you require them just for cutting, at a depth of around 15cm. You can also create a more natural style of planting within your borders, by laying the corms out in loose swathes varying their planting depth from 10 – 20cm to help stagger flowering times.

Once they appear, don’t forget to support them – wire support rings are extremely good for this. These can even be put in place immediately after planting to remind you of where the corms are!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd just bought a bag of gladioli corms and was wondering what to do with them - et maintenant je sais!
Merci Miranda

Miranda Bell said...

Glad you found this helpful...