Here's a pink one with some roses.

I got a bunch of glad bulbs from Walmart a few years ago and they have been coming back just fine. I got a mixed pack and ended up with a lot of soft pretty pinks so I think they must have mostly pinks in the mixed packs. I like to soak the bulbs in warm water or rain water if you have it, for a few hours before planting.

Yea, I have gotten them from walmart, online, and even the dollar store. The Dollar store where the smallest, but bloomed, the online ones were the prettiest and largest, but more expensive, but not lots of money. All three have been fine!

Do these have to be lifted once dormant or can they be left in the ground year round in Florida?

I leave mine. They return fine.

I leave mine too, some have returned and some have not.

But everything in my garden is hit or miss, I am not good or consistent or knowledgeable, I just play in the dirt!

These ones I planted last year! I have not bought any yet, but I plan to! One year I had these dark purple ones, they did not come back (had it in a rough spot)

Took both of these pics just today. I had a stalk that blooms during the cold, those blooms are gone, but have two in bloom right now and several others that are showing buds!

If I keep buying new ones every year I'll have some in bloom at all different times!!!

I could not resist, my local dollar tree did not have any th is year so I ran to home depot, they had boxes with 12 for 5 bucks or a big bag of 60 for 14 bucks.

I just did 2 boxes even hough I would have gotten more bang for my buck with the big bag. I just want to pop a few more in the garden quick, not make a whole project out of it.!

I think something eats a few of mine here and there. The only critter I see in my fenced garden is squirrels. I suppose mice or something could get in there too. Most return. I am gonna look for some dark purple ones. Those sound pretty. They might look nice with some dwarf sunflowers.

Omg that is beautiful, I love it!

The white ones look so elegant! I must look for some white ones too!

Its true they get dried up or get fungus gnat worms growing in them if they sit too long. I try and get them when they are fresh in. I have on occasion bought clearance at the end of the season but I check them good first. Its always a gamble if you wait that long though. I bought some hollyhock roots this year with the bulbs. I got pink, yellow, and the Nigra ones. We will see how that plays out lol. I planted them yesterday. I was surprised at how large they were. One also had a small lily bulb in there and one had a little daylily bulb lol. I went ahead and planted them in along with the hollyhocks. Hitchhikers!

How much sun is needed by glads?

I have mine in full sun. I am not sure of the minimum you could get away with.

I have mine in full sun too, although late summer/ early fall they get a little droopy from heat. In future I might try some in a spot with less sun. (My glads have a mind of their own and different ones pop at different times - they have been planted at different times but I though the reblooms would sort of regulate to a certain season).

unfortunately my yard is half shade in the morning and full blasting sun rest of the day, so the magic of warm sunny mornings and made in the shade late afternoons does not happen. I have a crape myrtle that has really grown nicely over this past year so maybe this summer it can give some relief to a small area near it.

I would like to add a couple of more details about my gladiolus raised bed. They are water hogs, they need lots of water to reach their potential. Many went over 4 ft tall. Last spring was warm and if this spring is the same they will need frequent, possibly daily, soaking. The growing tip will droop when they're thirsty, you have to pay attention.

The soil in the bed is good quality rich soil (mixed in lots of peat moss, cow manure and pine bark fines and turned it over several times) and I did spread some 10-10-10 fertilizer every couple of weeks in between rows. Not much in the way of insect damage, I believe they were growing so strong that nothing bothered them.

The bed is on the east side of my shed and it does not get the worst part of afternoon sun. I did not remove the bulbs from bed after they were done blooming, have kept the bed mostly dry, except for rain, to avoid the bulbs rotting. When the stalks dried up I would just pull them out. We will see how they fared , this coming spring. There were a few rose plants mixed in with glads and they nearly died cause of they dry treatment... but oh well, this is a gladiolus bed not a rose bed.

I also had a bag of leftover glads that were bought and forgotten during previous season and about half were still viable. I added them to the bed to see f they would sprout and they did. They stayed small and a few grew a bloom, but I was just testing. Hope they will grow and compete this spring.

Wow that sounds like a lot of pampering. I was really hoping they liked the sandy soil and just came up when the rainy season begins and went dormant during the dry season lol..like amaryllis and rain lilies do

Me, too. Like caladiums - carefree (except their cycle seems more heat dependent than rain dependent, and they like a little bone meal).

Once you have a spot's soil improved and add some slow release fertilizer, its only about watering. If you have a sprinkler system then its no extra work. If not, choose a bit shadier spot and mulch heavy and that will cut down on water need. I was able to keep 3 homes decorated with fresh glads for over a month... nice return on a little work. My raised bed is 4ft x 10ft but a smaller bed, say 4x4 will give you plenty of impressive blooms to enjoy in the house.

I pamper all the all-season-long bloomers but if it only blooms once, it's on its own lol I make an exception for orchids though :D

I am used to working hard for my blooms,as a long time orchid grower... it has become a way of life...

How about growing glads in containers?

pots can certainly be used for glads. They just have to be large and deep enough.

I would use at least a 15 gallon pot, fill it halfway, place the glads about 6 inches apart and then fill the rest of the pot.

An interesting tidbit.... not sure if you knew this, but I found out when I was researching if they grew here in Florida.. Florida used to be considered the Gladiola Capitol of the World..... If you Google it, there are some really cool pictures and history.

Yes, sharon. When I was a child and they were just building the bridge to Sanibel, practically all the way from the old 2-lane version of 41 to the island was fields and fields of glads. Ribbons of rainbow color.

ETA Another bit of floral history: Stuart used to be the winter carnation capitol.

I also remember that we used to get a lot of FL-grown sweet peas, but don't know where those came from.

Wow I dont baby mine at all. I water and fertilize if I am doing other plants near them. Sometimes I add a small bamboo stake if they get too top heavy. I also have some growing on the inside of the veggie garden fence. I can tie those to the fence if they get top heavy in sandy soil, just like the sunflowers lol.

I read about Florida and glads the other year, it was really interesting.

I also saw pics of sweet pea flowers in Fl too, hense why I bought some seeds, but I might a different species than what can be bought in the stores.

I also was told that around my home town for fort pierce there use to be fields of pineapple farms!

A few more glads opened up, but they are the same colors of the ones I took pics of.

many local farmers who grew winter veggies also had a few rows of flowers for cutting, this was broward county in the early 80's. Now there is hardly any land used for farming. You have to go way west to big commercial growers who do not care to grow any flowers as their business is not geared to local consumers who would buy the flowers but instead they want maximum veggie production to ship up north during the winter/spring.