Gladiolus tristis
Mary Sue Ittner (Fri, 16 Jul 2004 20:22:14 PDT)

Dear All,

I've been enjoying a Gladiolus tristis that has been blooming recently. I
grew it from IBSA seed collected near Paarl of a late blooming variety once
known as Gladiolus tristis var. aestivalis. Even though it is late blooming
and has more flowers Goldblatt and Manning didn't think it deserved
varietal status. I am glad however that the donor of the seed kept the
variety because that was a clue to me that it could be different than the
ones I already grow that bloom in March and April. This one is more
fragrant than the other one I grow (evening, night, and early morning that
is.) The flowers also close slightly in the middle of the day. This species
is often found in really wet habitats and I'd love to know more about the
Paarl location as this is definitely a winter rainfall area and you'd
expect it would be dry at this time of the year (Dec-Jan there). I had two
batches of seed bloom for the first time this year from sowings a year
apart. I suspect I didn't water them enough in the past, but this year
since the plants were still green I kept watering them. The oldest one had
more flowers.

Gladiolus tristis has a reputation for potentially being weedy, but it has
never been that for me. I suspect its because my soil is so dry in summer
that those little tiny cormlets in great numbers around the base of the
bigger corm don't survive. I've added my pictures to the wiki.

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

Gladiolus monticola is spiking (blooms before the leaves) so I have the
last winter rainfall species finishing and the new season starting of
another species very soon.

Mary Sue
Mary Sue Ittner
California's North Coast
Wet mild winters with occasional frost
Dry mild summers