After digging up my Gladiolla's for the winter I noticed both double bulbs and lots of tiny little "bulbetts" attached together.
Q: Should I separate and keep the tiny "bulbetts"?
Q: Should I separate the larger bulbs?
Any other advise in winter prep would be helpfull as well. I'm very new at this!
Thanks
Brian
This message was edited Oct 16, 2004 2:35 PM
I used to try to keep the different named cultivars separate, but today I dug my glads and just threw them all together in the same box. However, that was not your question.
I dig my glads and cut off the green tops leaving about an inch attached to the bulb. I keep the bulbils/corms also and plant them again in the spring. They will eventually grow big enough to be flowering glads, but for a few years will only be greenery.
I don't separate the twin bulbs, but maybe someone else has some advice on that. I'd also like to know.
After I dig them and cut the tops off, I lay them on a blanket in the garage until the tops dry off. Then I pack them in a box and cover with sand, and put them in the crawl space of our house. It stays about 50 degrees in there, and that's also where I store my dahlia bulbs and dormant brug plants. I give them a sprinkling of water about once a month throughout the winter to keep them from dehydrating and then I plant them again in the spring.
Joan's advice is safer than what my experience may suggest, but the following might be of interest -
Mine have been overwintering outside the last few winters - I suspect because they are growing in terraces up and down our hill where the excellent drainage gives them an edge over cold winter temps. Included in the backfill were charcoal and wood ashes from our wood stove.
However, I used to overwinter them indoors by putting them in a cardboard box in our basement (with no sand, just by themselves in the box) which stays around 55 degrees Fahrenheit. I would break the clumps apart the following spring and plant all the corms and bulblets. Just before planting, I would soak them in a solution of 1 gal water to 1 Tbsp of bleach to kill any thrips. I don't remember for how long - perhaps 30 minutes.
When in doubt, it's always a good idea to divide your bulbs into groups, applying plan a to group a, plan b to group b, etc. Joan's method seems the best approach to many different types of bulbs you may not be sure of.
Brian,
Heres what we do; first snap the stems off, they will come off real easy, then lay them out to dry for a few days. Then take the old bulb off the bottom & seperate all the bulbs. The little bulbettes will fall off. We always keep the biggest, but you can keep them all. Take a lot of the loose paper stuff off of the corms, the correct name for the bulbs. Next soak them in a fungacide. Then dry again & dust with a pesticide. Store in something with a vented bottom.
Here's a pic of them drying. We put them in our greenhouse, do not let them freeze!
Bernie
Here's a pic of the boxes we put them in. They are about 16"x24", wire mesh bottoms. We stack them with 3/4" spacers between boxes. Store at about 35º, with air movement. Last year we used a friends walk in cooler in an unheated building. We put a small electric heater set very low & a small fan running all the time. The corms looked just like they did in the fall.
We took the tiny bulbets and just poured them in trench. They grew thick as grass. Some even bloomed!
The ones from 2 years ago almost all bloomed. We have not dug them yet so I don't know how big they got.
Bernie
