Gladiolus tristis

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Sun, 17 May 2009 14:59:02 PDT
Gladiolus tristis has a lot of tiny corms around the mother corm so if you 
ever reuse the soil it is in you will have some of the babies in it and 
that is a source of new plants. If you remove it from the ground, you'll 
probably have some left. It is not invasive for me in my northern 
California garden in spite of its reputation. It doesn't even increase in 
great numbers like Freesia alba, Babiana hybrids, Moraea (Homeria hybrids), 
Geissorhiza inaequalis. I know it has that bad reputation, but I've grown 
some from seed and was given some and I've never had huge quantities in my 
garden. We saw it in the wild in large numbers in wet places so that may 
say something about it too. My soil dries out really quickly as it is 
sandstone mostly and the tree roots sap up the water. Perhaps that explains 
it. If you grow it you need to cut it and bring it inside to enjoy it's 
fragrance during the night as during the day it is not fragrant. I think it 
is important to be careful with plants that someone has labeled as weedy, 
but we all have different conditions so what is a problem one place may not 
be true elsewhere. I'm sure where it is colder than here Freesia alba would 
not survive and therefore would not be a problem. There are some things 
here we are very careful to dead head.

Mary Sue


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