Why do my gladiolas lean over?
Question:My glads lean way over to the ground. I assume this is because the flower itself makes them heavy, but is there anything I can do to prevent this? Should I be planting them deeper in the ground?
Answers:
nope. there's nothing you can do to prevent it from happening but there's plenty you can do to effectively deal with it.
it's the nature of the plant to topple as the flowers (and the moisture content therein) develop become heavier than the slender stock can support.
after generations of cultivating and cross breeding to get that perfect bloom, this is one of the negatives.
the solution is easy! as previous answerers have said: stake them.
and a simple, unobvious and not at all unsightly way of doing this is to get twiggy branches from a tree pruning and plunge them into the ground right by your flower. it'll look like a mini little tree next to your flower stalks at first but soon the leaves of the surrounding plants will cover them up and they will be virutually invisible. the twigs will support the weight on the flower stems. call it "nature's stake".
this works for all plants needing staking (paeoni, tomato, beans, delphiniums... all of them) and is a method favoured by the botanical gardens of england and canada (one of which i used to work in) annnnnnnnnnd... it's FREE and looks better than store bought (plastic coated) metal hoopy things and it WORKS!
oh, and if you plant the bulb deeper, it won't help at all... but it's an interesting approach! (un)fortunately, plants/bulbs/seeds have their own little programmes... and they generally stick to it...no matter how long it takes them.
I always loosely tie mine up to a stake otherwise they will fall over in the wind and rain (even if they're healthy).
There is nothing you can do except stake them up. Most garden centers have wire poles that you can use to put in the ground and secure the flower to it. Most flowers or plants if planted too deep either don't flower or rot. Just try to find some creative way to help them stand up.
They make metal stakes for heavy flowers like that-with a loop at the top. Here are some sites:
The first has the best selection:
http://www.nenature.com/garden/plant-sup...
http://rowecraft.com/gardeners/flowergar...
Please vote if this is the best answer.
More Related Questions & Answers...