[pbs] Gladiolus carneus
Tony Avent
tony at plantdelights.com
Mon Mar 5 12:37:20 EST 2007
Max:
You bring up an interesting point about gladiolus. When I was visiting
Gladiolus breeders in Holland a couple of years ago, I ask about any
that might be winter hardy. The reply was that they select against
winter hardiness since the worst thing in their minds was that corms
could overwinter contaminating a new variety that was subsequently grown
in the same field. I asked if they had ever considered breeding for
hardy gladiolus and their answer was both no, and why would people want
glads to be winter hardy? Can you imagine thinking about narcissus in
the same bizarre terms as they do gladiolus. I'd be thrilled if someone
would develop a good garden worthy group of sturdy and winter hardy
glads...the species and some of the early hybrid genetics are certainly
there for such a project.
Tony Avent
Plant Delights Nursery @
Juniper Level Botanic Garden
9241 Sauls Road
Raleigh, North Carolina 27603 USA
Minimum Winter Temps 0-5 F
Maximum Summer Temps 95-105F
USDA Hardiness Zone 7b
email tony at plantdelights.com
website http://www.plantdelights.com
phone 919 772-4794
fax 919 772-4752
"I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself...at least three times" - Avent
Max Withers wrote:
> Speaking of Gladiolus, I've noticed that the "ground color" of G.
> carneus varies from an almost pure white though pale pink to naked lady
> pink (by which I mean Amaryllis belladonna pink, of course). Does anyone
> know if the species is just variable, or are there different clones out
> there?
>
> To my taste, there is no geophyte except possibly Iris that commercial
> plant breeding has ruined more than Gladiolus. I don't mean this in a
> snobbish way -- sometimes bigger really is better, but in this case not.
>
> Best,
> Max
>
>
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