The second name of this beautiful flower is fennel. If you look closely at the leaves, they look like swords. Translated from Latin, "gladiolus" means "short sword."
The main mistake gardeners
Many novice gardeners achieve good flowering in plants, but, unfortunately, after making one annoying mistake. They collect all available information on how to care for gladioli. They try and put a lot of effort into preparing the soil and choosing varieties, but miss one point. This is due to the time when to clean gladioli for the winter.
Many people divide flowers into early, medium ripening and late varieties, but not everyone knows that the color of the plant also plays a role in the formation and development of tubers. This is exactly what happens with gladioli. In the time period when it was time to remove gladioli, remember that dark varieties finish the bulb formation a week earlier than flowers with light inflorescences. Therefore, they can be dug up in a month and no more, otherwise the process of rotting the tubers may begin. The standard time for harvesting gladioli for the winter begins a month and a half after the end of the flowering period. The beds planted from children can be left last.
When to clean gladioli: recommendations of gardeners
Choose a warm and sunny day. In order not to damage the children on the bulb, they should be dug out with a pitchfork, which has three teeth. You can use a shovel, but then you have to clean the tubers from a large amount of land, which does not happen when applying forks. In any case, all extracted planting material should be cleaned from the ground and slightly dried. Many gardeners recommend pickling it from pests almost immediately after the bed, offering to use a variety of drugs for this purpose (boric acid, potassium substances, a solution of manganese or karbofos, and many others). Next, cut off the entire aerial part of the stem, leaving a stump a couple of centimeters high, and put the bulbs to dry in a ventilated room with a temperature above 20 ° C. The drying process takes a couple of months. During this time, planting material for the detection of diseased tubers should be reviewed several times.
Thrips Measures
If thrips is detected, immediate action should be taken. Infected corms are destroyed, healthy ones are placed in bags made of polyethylene, into which a little aerosol insect repellent is added. After the package is tightly tied and left for an hour and a half. The second method, suitable for getting rid of the parasite, is to hold the tubers for five minutes in hot water (above 50 ° C) and dry.
Now comes the time when gladioluses should be removed for the winter. If they are not stored in the refrigerator (in paper bags), they are poured with sand. Here's another good tip for owners of flowers like gladioli: how to cut them without harming the plant. To do this, you can use a knife, awl. Cutting occurs in cool weather or early in the morning, late in the evening. We find a place in the leaves, where the peduncle comes from, and pierce a hole in it through the leaves. Further, on both sides we cut only the stem. The remaining leaves will close above the cut and will not allow infections or parasites to get there.