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oldhousestreetroad

Gladiolus Bulbs coming back!?

I’m a relatively new home owner and getting more into landscape design, lawn care and gardening. When we moved in last year it was around July in Central Texas and I decided to do some landscape “maintenance” and being the garden guru I was, I decided to cut down some random tall looking “weeds.” Unbeknownst to me, they were Gladiolus Flowers.
It was hard to see what they were at the time because of the lack of water, high heat, drought stress, and overall poor management while the house was on the market. Anyways, there were some photos taken of the gladiolus before I cut everything and I recently took some photos of what the same area looks like now.
My question is this: Are the recent photos gladiolus popping up bound to flower soon? Are they going to come back? Are these just weeds? Haha any insight would be phenomenal!

The photos below with flowers were taken last year. The ones without any bulbs were taken last week.

Comments (34)

  • 8 years ago

    Looks like it! The leaf shape is right, and the even rows are a good sign. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

    lennox sinclaire (8a) thanked Alex (SA-8b)
  • 8 years ago

    A big yes

    lennox sinclaire (8a) thanked bossyvossy
  • 8 years ago

    Thank Y'all! I'll keep you updated! P.S, any tips to promote growth or timetable for when these typically bloom?

  • 8 years ago

    Mine bloom randomly throughout summer but are also potted & could be how i planted them.

    lennox sinclaire (8a) thanked shellshok
  • 8 years ago

    that's odd that the previous owner planted them like that...it means for several months, he can't mow there.


    Unless it is just because over time, there was not much weeding done and it has returned to a natural state of having other plant growth in between the gladiolus plants.


    Or actually, I guess I could see in the 2nd picture, that there is more bare dirt at some point. Maybe the new growth of weeds between the flowers, really is unintended.



  • 8 years ago

    I’ve had mine jump the fence, I relocate

    lennox sinclaire (8a) thanked bossyvossy
  • 8 years ago

    Just to be clear: (As you can see in this photo) When I mentioned I "cut down" everything, I literally shredded everything in the area down to the soil which makes this comeback all the more intriguing to me.


  • 8 years ago

    Oh wow!

    lennox sinclaire (8a) thanked shellshok
  • 8 years ago

    Under the circumstances, don't be surprised if you don't get much of a bloom this year. Having mowed down the plants before the foliage died off naturally means the corms may not have had ample opportunity to store up sufficient energy reserves for blooming this season. Gladiolus foliage tends to last until frost kills it off in my zone.

  • 8 years ago
    Hey y’all! Here’s an update on the current status of the Gladiolus “garden.”
    Surprisingly enough, there are about five that have shot up over the last few days and seem to be in good spirits! Any insight regarding how to care, cut, stimulate further growth would be greatly appreciated.
    Also, any thoughts on the lovely brown weeds and how to potentially eradicate would be helpful!
  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Good for you! I learned glads can be classified as early, mid or late, like Daylilies and other perennials. Yours may be late blooming. Do nothing, you can’t speed the process. As to the weed, I don’t recognize. Can you take to extension office? Armed with that info you can then come up w/eradication strategy. Extension agent will have loads of info on what to do.

    I adore glads, love the infinite variety of colors and ease to grow. But they have 2 cons: they flop so a messy look and once blooms are spent, you live with boring foliage. That means your garden bed is nothing for a while. I once planted a patch w/75 bulbs and it was absolutely glorious but the aftermath was a letdown. I’ve since changed my strategy and cluster 20 or so bulbs amidst other plants. Less messy.

  • 8 years ago

    I chose by color, not bloom time. Here are some late (in my area) bloomers. Most are done.



  • 8 years ago

    Here is a messy patch post bloom


  • 8 years ago

    And here are some I bought thinking they were yellow w/pink picotee. Either wrong cultivar or my soil made them bloom whitish rather than pale yellow. In any case, I’ll transplant...when I get ‘round to it.





  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Bloom time can be important. One year I was hot to trot for a pot of red white blue glads. I didn’t take bloom time into account and my vision was not to be, sigh. It can be done with careful shopping but once I was deflated, I lost interest and went with patriotic vincas.

  • 8 years ago
    @bossyvossy thanks for the insight and ideas! I’m going to give it another 6 months to see what kind of surprises may arise around the entire house after which I plan on getting a bit more intentional! It wasn’t too long ago there were some beautiful tall bearded irises that randomly popped up in the front yard. Trying to find that middle ground of letting any more unknown planted flowers reveal themselves, and just “going to town!”
    New homeowner problems..
  • 8 years ago

    I'm not a plant ID expert, but the brown weeds look like they could be annual ryegrass, especially from the seed heads in the last photo. That would explain why they are brown now--annual ryegrass grows in the cool season of fall-spring, then seeds and dies in the summer.

    If it is annual ryegrass, at the very least, you'll want to cut back the tops/seed heads as soon as possible to keep the seeds the from spreading. No need to dig them up. They're dead, and the roots will simply decompose in the soil and feed the worms. You'll then want to mulch the bed, or apply pre-emergent in the fall--the seeds won't sprout until the weather cools in fall--to keep any seeds from sprouting and growing back.

  • 8 years ago

    We've not grown glads since Houston where we would usually get about three years of declining performance out of them before replacing with new bulbs. I seem to recall this being considered normal there then. Do glads naturalize anywhere in Texas (... or maybe some newer cultivars do)?

  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    All mine naturalize. Amended clay soil. The ones planted in less than full sun are lankier and slower to multiply. But strangely, the Byzantine which is a species is a very poor performer for me. They seem to do best in the dryer parts of my garden. I’ve had ones planted where they get hit by sprinkler and they do decline.

  • 8 years ago

    Ugh! After bloom flop. And these are dwarf glads.

  • 8 years ago

    I planted some gladiolus bulbs last year but so far there's no signs of any of them. Should I assume they're dead? They're planted in extremely sandy soil in full sun along a fence. Also they are in a zone 6a garden. The people who owned this property before us had gladiolus on their property that faithfully returned for years, so I'm extremely puzzled as to why they haven't come back.

  • 8 years ago

    Full sun, sandy soil no problem but they s/h come up by now. You could dig in the area and see if you find bulbs. If yes, put them back. if no, means poor quality or old bulbs that rotted.

  • 8 years ago

    A late bloomer


  • 8 years ago

    Gorgeous Bossy! My hubby would really love those being a Vikings fan lol

  • 8 years ago
    Update as of 7.29.18
    The Glads were looking decent (all things considered) for about a month but unfortunately stopped blooming. Not sure what the contributing factors were besides this wicked Central Texas heat, and perhaps some (accidental) ryegrass seed competition. Any thoughts on what type of ailments are present in the following photos?
    Still an amateur so maybe its just that time of the season.
  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    No ailments whatsoever; it’s what they do. Flower, decline, disappear (if you let foliage die on its own), repeat next spring.

    I cant stand the floppy foliage, so as soon as cooler than 99 degrees, I’ll trim foliage. It is not recommended to trim when foliage is green as the corms feeds from nutrients via foliage (like daffodils) but for me it becomes a choice between a tidy garden vs. an expanding clump. In some areas I choose one, in other areas, I choose the other.

  • 8 years ago

    A friend told me to bury mine deeper so they dont flop. Im gonna try it with a few bulbs & see what happens

  • 8 years ago

    I think they're born to flop...no matter what, but good luck :)

  • 8 years ago

    Lol that sounds so bad but i agree. Im willing to try on a few bulbs since i have a ton to plant.

  • 8 years ago

    May indeed just be their nature. In the few photos of "wild" glads I found on the web, it looks appears that they may be native to grasslands or meadows. If that is the case, then they likely get some physical support from the other plants such as grasses growing around them.

  • 8 years ago

    And/or (reply to Paul above) they're simply happy to be slightly tipsy in the morning (*lol*).

  • 8 years ago

    I love glads and very familiar with/them. The dwarfs, which grow to about 24” max, are (dishonestly) marketed as non flopping, but they still flop. I think is the nature of the plant, whether planted 8” or 4” deep.

    lennox sinclaire (8a) thanked bossyvossy
  • 7 years ago
    Hey y’all! Update: I over-seeded the side lawn last fall, kept mowing height low and had lovely rye grass throughout the Texas “winter.” All traces of the glads were gone as the entire area was fresh cut lush green rye grass.
    AND then sure enough, on March 23, bam! they’re seemingly growing back just like last time. I can’t believe how resilient the gladiolus is! I’m aware I might not get the blooms desired for inadequate care over the offseason but nonetheless, just wanted to share. Photos from 3.23.19 and 4.14.19
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