[QUOTE=PlainJane;723323]Wow, nice to see gladiolus being cultivated. Few people in the US seem to grow them, maybe because they’re so associated with funeral arrangements.[/QUOTE]

They don't have that association over here, if anything they are more associated with our television character Dame Edna Evedridge for those old enough to remember Barry Humphrey's creation

[QUOTE=PlainJane;723323]Wow, nice to see gladiolus being cultivated. Few people in the US seem to grow them, maybe because they’re so associated with funeral arrangements.[/QUOTE]

They don't have that association over here, if anything they are more associated with our television character Dame Edna Evedridge for those old enough to remember Barry Humphrey's creation

Gladiolus and Asiatic lily
 

I bought 2 of each at Lowe's a couple of days ago. Need to wait until the middle of February to plant in my area, according to Google searches. Has anyone ever grown gladiolus in pots? I don't have room for all of these if I'm going to plant tomatoes, so pots are a necessity.

Donna, I haven't personally grown them in pots, indeed I can't recall ever seeing them in pots for sale in pots, but then they are easily grown in the ground here in a set and forgot fashion. Personally, with the depth and spacing requirements quoted here (4 inches deep, 8 apart) I would be putting 4 in a 12 or 14 inch pot, or singlely in an 8.

I’ve grown lilies in pots but not glads. Lilies you can crowd up and they won’t care, ime.

I'm sure I can find nooks and crannies in the ground for many of them and on Pinterest there are photos of glads in pots.....the photos look almost too good to be true.

Donna, for what it's worth, I often plant 5 or 7 gladiola(e?) in the centre of large flower pots/planters as the "vertical interest", the flowers are a bonus...

edited to add: more recently I usually use Acidanthera as the central element as you get the vertical interest, flowers and a lovely scent as an added bonus.

Good to know some people have planted gladioli? in pots.

The second to last of the gladioli to flower, a beautiful red throated yellow. They are standing up well to the heat, just need to keep the water up to them. Yesterday 40C, today expecting 41C followed by a couple of days around 37C

I've grown them in pots successfully many times - just make sure it's a fairly deep pot. I've given them up since the hoppers find them delicious and I'm tired of losing a good half of them!

Early daffodil today
 

This is from a bag of bulbs I bought from Wal-Mart. More colors and varieties will be following in the coming days/weeks. Lots of the daffodil bulbs have sent up bloom stalks.

The last of the gladioli is flowering, another very nice one, this one mauve or near.

Nice day Spooky

As an aside, I dumped a bit of pollen from from the Black Charm lily onto the yellow one ( both shown previously). Two seed pods are swelling and it would appear that some pods are swelling on one of the Black Charm plants, these would be selling most likely as a result of the winds we had when it was flowering

You don’t have to stake your glads, given that it’s usually windy where you are?

[QUOTE=PlainJane;724385]You don’t have to stake your glads, given that it’s usually windy where you are?[/QUOTE]

I tend not to stake them if I can avoid it. They are in a bed on the east side of the house and the 2 foot high deck which surrounds the house. This gives them fairly good protection although I have pushed in stakes to support them while they are flowering and when they winds get up. I generally leave it at that for if I do tie them the wind can break the flower stems, which our 6 year old daughter certainly doesn't like.

I love caladiums but they are water hogs which I can work around.
They grow in the shade and in my sorry soil like weeds.
They come from the amazon and its sorry soil like mine.
Did it one year and the yard looked fantastic full of many colors.
The problem is I would have to dig them all up for the next year or they would die from the cold.
I dont have anymore room to keep this stuff.:dizzy:

Double daffodil
 

Bloomed this morning.

Daffodil bouquet
 

The wind and rain last night blew many of my blooming daffodils into the dirt, so I cut them and made a nice arrangement. The center of the double daff looks orange, but it's very pink.

Beautiful!

Thanks, Jane. I still have several which have yet to bloom. Since the bags of bulbs I bought were mixtures of several varieties, I don't know what they will look like.

Lovely flowers, do like the doubles

My garden is filled with bulbs. Lots of different tulips (I'm Dutch, so that's no surprise), snowdrops, winter aconites, hyacinths, daffodils, alliums, muscari, anemones, crocus and scilla.
I'm growing dahlias from seeds. Pics will follow once they start to grow and blossom.

I can't wait to see your beautiful photos!

Crocosmia
 

Will be planting these shortly. It's been a long time since I grew these and I forgot how pretty they are. Mine will bloom earlier than late summer.

Your hummingbirds will be happy!

Petite variety
 

The flowers are small, but there are multiple bloomstalks per bulb.

Crocus
 

This is the first crocus to bloom. The plants are very tiny. They came from a bag of bulbs from Wal-Mart. I refrigerated them for 6 weeks before planting.

What will you do for next year, assuming there won’t be enough chill hours for crocus in your garden?

I treat crocus, hyacinth, most daffodils, and tulips as annuals.

Chinese Ground Orchid (Blettila)
 

These are blooming around the tiny pond in the backyard.

Gorgeous. Nice contrast between that purple and bright green.