Gladiolous - Hardiness question

Is it just me, or is there something odd about the common "non-hardy" gladiolous? What I mean is this: I bought gladiolous, which are suppossed to have been the common glads that you dig up in the fall so they won't freeze to death. I planted them 7-8 inches deep. For the last 2 years, these have been coming up like weeds! I'm too lazy to dig them up and also don't want to disturb nearby plants. So I left them in the ground and I've yet to see any problem with the cold weather. In fact, even after digging them out (because they actually were taking over too much in the space I alloted for them) they keep coming up, at first like blades of grass...and then bigger and bigger. Do you guys experience this too? Maybe my planting depth is the key. I'm in zone 6 near Cincinnati.

no idea, thats great! I've been digging mine up year after year, along with the canas and dahlias and mexican stars and now the brugs! I bought some winter hardy glads-mini ones-I just love them so different looking!!!
Im afraid to leave any of them in the ground here in Mich.
zone 6 by the bay!
dori

You might want to try a small group of glads a little deeper and see if it works for you, as a test. As for the canna...here's something I found. I have a canna planted right next to the foundation of my house and it comes back every year (left in the ground over winter) If you have a spot like that, you could try it. It may not gets as big, but I never have to fool with it.

I am in Louisville. We planted ours a little deeper and they are fine. They keep coming up and multipling. I am not sure if it is the city sewer sysytems or what that keep the ground a bit warmer. However, I tried that with the cannas and lost everyone because they heave, and you can't get them deep enough. But my friend planted hears against her house and she only lost a couple(cannas).

I'm in zone 5 and I've had that happen too, but in my case, it was the lovely "mulch" of dead weeds that fell over on them in the fall! Now I have some that were sold to me as hardy butterfly glads and they have multiplied like crazy. I just don't remember where I got them.

I learned you don't really have to dig them up in Zone 6. Last October I, also a Zone 6, was digging up my glads and my dahlias. On my organic gardeners list is another Jersey Zone 6 gardener who told me I didn't have to dig them up.

So I quit digging. I had about half of them stored away in nice wood boxes on top of gravel, even treated with a something to prevent the mold. I cannot tell you how much work that was.

This spring all the glads I left in the ground came up. The ones I dug up and treated so carefully all died because of mold.

Moral of the Story is its better to be lazy.

NJCher

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we are also in zone 6, we dig ours to check the condition of the corms, like bulb rot etc.
we also like to move our glad beds every couple years to other locations to help prevent build up of insects common to them.
we place the corms about 8" deep, this helps hold up the
plants when they get top heavy.

I haven't had much luck with them standing on their own...even buried 8" down. I'm going to put them with other plants that will support them.