Gladiolus dalenii is a species of flowering plant in the iris family Iridaceae. It is one of the most widely distributed species of Gladiolus, ranging from eastern South Africa and Madagascar throughout tropical Africa and into western Arabia. It is the main parental species of the large flowering grandiflora hybrids. This species is also unusual in its genus in including diploid, tetraploid and hexaploid races. The hybrids produced from it are often tetraploids. It produces five tall flower spikes of yellow to scarlet flowers, often streaked red over a yellow ground color, generally with a yellow throat. It prefers a light sandy neutral to slightly acid soil with a pH between 6.5 and 7 in a sunny sheltered position and requires a stony gritty loam.
Keep gladiolus plants well watered with at least 1 inch of water a week. This amount may have to increase during periods of drought or if you're growing in raised beds.
Proper care of gladiolus requires the use of fertilizer. As they come up, you can fertilize the new gladioli batches when you see the flower spikes start to show. After you pick the flowers, you can fertilize again. When you fertilize, just add the granules next to the flower, and then scratch the soil with a cultivator to mix it a little.
Prune the remaining leaves and stems when they turn brown and wilt using pruning shears. Cut the stems down as far as you can, level with the soil if possible. Each corm lives only one year, so the leaves aren't dormant -- they are dead and should be removed. New corms that budded off the old one grow a new annual gladiolus when the weather turns warm.
Air temperatures between 50 and 77 degrees F produce the best growth, but they'll withstand temperatures up to 104 degrees F with proper irrigation. You can check the soil temperature with a soil thermometer at a depth of 6 inches before planting gladiolus.
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