Winter rain Gladiolus like their winters wet and mild and may need a dry summer dormancy. They are often less hardy, reaching down to USDA zone 8 at most.
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Gladiolus carmineus is a narrow endemic of the southwestern Cape coast (winter rainfall) where it grows on rocky sandstone cliffs within the sight of the sea. Flowers appear in the fall (mid February to April) and are pale to deep pink. Each of the lower three tepals and sometimes the upper lateral tepals have a median whitish streak surrounded by a pale mauve halo. There are three to five reduced leaves on the flowering stem. Foliage leaves produced by plants that did not flower appear later and are long and trailing, 8 to 10 mm wide, glaucous with a lightly thickened midrib. They grow during the wet winter and spring, drying off in late spring.
Some PBS members report that they get better results from this bulb in pots if watering is started in late summer (August in California). Others report that it blooms reliably in dry ground even if given no supplemental water. You may need to experiment to see what works best in your climate. It is definitely easier to grow in coastal climates. It has naturalized in the coastal Northern California garden of Bob Rutemoeller and Mary Sue Ittner. They scatter seeds about after the pods split open. The first four photos were taken in this garden. The third shows the long narrow foliage leaves of a clump in February 2014. The fourth is a closer view of a leaf. Mary Sue was asked why these leaves look different from the ones in Nhu's photo below. She did a tour of her garden and found leaves of different widths, some curled, some upright, and some flat. So it may depend on how and where the plants are growing, as well as how old they are. Photo 5 was taken in September, 2005 by David Victor, which flowers in the UK during September, followed later by the foliage. Flower stems and foliage are grey-green. David's plants hold typically four or five flowers on a spike. The last photo is from the summer hemisphere and was taken by Bill Dijk.
Photo 1 is of a slightly lighter-colored form grown by Michael Mace. Photos 2-3 were taken by Nhu Nguyen. Photo 3 shows the pendent habit of the leaves, which makes sense since it grows on cliffs.
Photos taken in habitat near Hermanus, South Africa by Cameron McMaster.
Gladiolus carneus F.Delaroche (syn. G. blandus Aiton ) has a wide distribution in the winter rainfall area of southern Africa and is found in a variety of habitats. It is a variable species that grows to about 50 cm with white to pink large flowers usually with dark spade shaped markings on the three lower lobes. It flowers late spring. This one seeds set very easily and also increases by cormlets. Photos taken in the wild, the first by Cameron McMaster in the Overberg and photos two and three by Andrew Harvie in Table Mountain National Park. Photo four is from the book Plants of the Klein Karoo courtesy of Jan and Anne Lise Schutte-Vlok. The last two photos are close-ups taken by Alan Horstmann.
The first photo was taken by Doug Westfall. The second one was taken June 2003 in Northern California of plants grown from seed, photo by Mary Sue Ittner. The third photo was taken by Jana Ulmer of plants grown from the same seed batch as the picture above. In 2004 both her population and Mary Sue's produced a lot of flowers that bloomed a very long time. Another form has been a reliable bloomer in our Northern California garden where it is planted in the ground and returns each year. Photo four by Bob Rutemoeller. Fifth photo is of an unmarked form, by Gordon Summerfield. Photo of seed on a 10 mm grid by David Pilling
Gladiolus caryophyllaceus (Burm.f.) Poir. grows on sandstone flats and slopes in the winter rainfall area, flowers winter to spring, and has large pink to mauve flowers that are speckled on the lower tepals and fragrant. This species has naturalized in Western Australia. The first four photos by Mary Sue Ittner, Bob Werra, and Alan Horstmann.
The first four habitat shots from Alan Horstmann were taken in the Western Cape. The last two habitat shots by Andrew Harvie were taken east of Koebeeberge in the Western Cape.
Gladiolus ceresianus L.Bolus grows on stony slopes and flats in clay soil from southern Namaqualand to the western Karoo and in the Roggeveld and Bokkeveld Plateau. It is a small plant, up to 10 cm tall with linear leaves with four longitudinal grooves and one to four flowers in a inclined spike that are brown to purple with dark veining. Flowers are pleasantly scented. This species flowers from August to October in the wild. Flowers are similar to Gladiolus uysiae, but that species has flat leaves. It is also very similar to Gladiolus virescens, but has dark, hard scales around the corms. Photo 1 from Cameron McMaster taken on the Matjiesfontein Sutherland road in the Roggeveld, photo 2 from Alan Horstmann, and photo 3 from Rod Saunders. The last two photos from the book Plants of the Klein Karoo courtesy of Jan and Anne Lise Schutte-Vlok.
Gladiolus comptonii G.J.Lewis is a rare plant that grows on rocky sandstone slopes in the northwest Cape in a localized area on Heerenlogement Mountain at the northwestern end of the Olifants River Mountains. Plants grow 45 to 60 cm high. The leaves are linear and the few bright yellow short tubed flowers have brown streaks on the lower tepals. This species flowers mid to late July (winter). Photo taken by Rachel Saunders.
Gladiolus crispulatus L. Bolus is a rare endemic that is found in the Southwestern Cape on south facing slopes between Swellendam and Riversdale. Growing to 30-40 cm, it has four or five superposed leaves, with the midribs lightly thickened and usually paired on one side and single on the other, and deep pink flowers with triangular median streaks and dark spots in the throat. It is similar to Gladiolus oreocharis but has larger flowers and different leaves and to Gladiolus carneus which also has different leaves and tepal markings. If flowers November-December, but usually only in the first several years after a fire so is rarely seen. The first photograph from Rachel Saunders was taken close to the top of the Langeberg Mountains. The next photos from iNaturalist were taken by Brian du Preez in November in the Western Cape and lennartn in November near Swellendam and shared under CC BY-SA and CC BY-NC licenses.
Gladiolus cunonius (Linnaeus) Gaertner (syns. Anomalesia cunonia, Antholyza cunonia) has bright red flowers and blooms in the spring and grows in sandy soils near the coast. The first three photos were taken by Bob Rutemoeller and Mary Sue Ittner and the next three by Cameron McMaster in habitat near Agulhas and Arniston in the Overberg. The last picture shows the seed capsules hanging over the cliff near the ocean.
Gladiolus cylindraceus G.J.Lewis grows on rocky sandstone slopes and ridges in low fynbos vegetation at elevations above 1500 m in the Ceres District of the Southwest Cape. Growing to 50 cm, it has three distinctive linear leaves with the lower one or two basal and the lowermost reaching to between the base and apex of the spike, sheathing the stem and cross shaped in transverse with wide grooves. The unscented flowers are pale pink to salmon with a diamond shaped red mark sometimes with a white to yellow center on the lower tepals. The tube is slender and elongate, up to 52 mm long. It flowers December to January. Photos from Rod Saunders and Rachel Saunders. The first was taken on the Waboomsberg Mountain and the others in the Witsenberg Mountains where there were flowers in colors from pink to apricot to almost yellow.
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