Excessive gladiolus bulb planting - a whole lot of digging

A stunning example of why I love these flowers, nobody can deny that these
are beautiful

I love gladiolus despite their association with a certain Australian dame and being considered a little naff.  I think they are big, blousy and beautiful.  So last year at Hampton Court I bought 40 bulbs.  Or corms, whichever you prefer. Quite a few you might be thinking.  Not quite a few, far too many by half!  Considering my clay soil is like granite and digging trenches for all those bulbs is equivalent to a solid three weeks pumping iron in the gym, that decision is insanity, and one I have questioned numerous times while being halfway through digging a big hole, up to my elbows in dirt.

Seven bags of future delights, or a hell of a lot of work wrapped in paper.  Why do I do it to myself?! They will be worth it though, I hope.  This is how they were delivered, in paper bags contained in a cardboard box

It was a little doubtful I would even get the opportunity to flex my increasing biceps and dig for floral glory because my receipt led me astray.  Buying something and then not receiving it until ten months later is bizarre at the best of times, but my receipt - which I can tell you, trying to keep hold of in a known location for all that time was not easy- told me they would be turning up two months before they did.

Six bulbs, or corms lying in the bed of sand at the bottom of a trench I sweated over for hours, ready to be covered up.  This is back when I had more sand and was more frivolous with it.  Later on each bulb got its own little mound and that was it

Anyway eventually my box of gruelling work did finally arrive, and horrors, Pheasant Acre Plants had sent free bulbs.  Im not usually one to sniff in the face of free stuff, but more bulbs equals more digging, and I had signed up to more than enough on my own as it is.  But not one to waste things, I will plant them as well.

Later on I figured out that it is easier to widen a deep hole than dig a whole fresh one, so I started planting in double rows

While it is tempting to just go to town, dig up half the garden all at once and get the whole lot in and be done and dusted with it, planting in succession means you get staggered flowering during the summer, which is more ideal.  This means I have dreaded many Saturday mornings rather than just the one.

I am putting them into the newly empty front bed, which is good because it means there aren't many obstacles like large roots in the way, but it is bad because I am going to have to attempt to dig them all back up again before the winter.  I see these bulbs as an investment rather than a one year kind of deal, and they wont be able to stay where they are indefinitely.

The way I go about burying my gladiolus bulbs is to be confused, im not sure what the best method is any more.  Last year I put them at the bottom of a big trench on a layer of manure.  This year I put them on sand to aid drainage, although thinking back now im wondering if they were still meant to get a bit of manure? Oh well, most of them definitely haven't got it and are just going to have to cope.  As to the deepness of the trench? As deep as I can dig before I collapse into one end, meekly calling for a reviving cup of tea from anyone in earshot.  There is a layer of clay that once hit requires a fork to loosen and then a trowel to dig out, and there is only so long anyone can be bothered with that.
After digging several of these trenches the father enquired if I was training for a new career as a gravedigger.  I think not, too much hard work.

I go for trenches rather than holes because im not a mole.  Chiselling down six inches forty times with a trowel?  No thanks.  Great big spade and a long trench that you can throw ten bulbs in is a more sensible approach in my opinion.  Nobody has time to be faffing around with a little trowel.  Go in gung-ho with plenty of manoeurve room.

Gladioli Alba, a stunning white variety with quite small star shaped flowers that really sing in the light of dusk.  They are doing really well and appear to be multiplying now

I put the bulbs on little mounds of sand with little coverings of sand to help drainage, probably less than they would like, but my sand stocks are running out and its a pain to replace. You have to wait for the bulbs to have nodules.  I had no clue what they were but small little nobbly bits were present on the bulbs round the root, so in they were bunged.

The backs of the flowers are flushed with green and just a hint of red, so simple
and yet so perfect

I have some really nice varieties such as chit chat - candy pink, indian summer - dusky pink, green star - green, black star - dark red, magma- red, aftershock - magenta pink, and callianthis murielae - night scented. I have but leaves at the second so will leave descriptions to pictures when we have some actual bloomage.  For now here are some pictures of alba, a glorious little white variety that the mother picked up at Chelsea a few years ago and is always a delight.  The bulbs stay in the ground so they flower very early, they have filled my gladiolus void until the main batch comes through.