It seems that falling over is a very common problem with glads I've read suggestions of planting deeper, staking individually, or planting in a group, and caging them.

There are also dwarf varieties, that are less prone to falling over.

I'm clueless on the corkscrew though. My guess is that maybe they had a hard time growing from that depth, and they distorted trying to get to the surface. Was the soil particularly hard, or packed over them?

Sue

Thanks for the answer. The soil was not particularly hard but it also was not very rich. The blooms were very good however. I planted yellow and deep red. The yellow mostly corkscrewed. The corkscrew was not at the stem where it came out of the ground but where the flower stalk came out od the stem.

It's too bad as gladiolus are one of my favorite flowers.