PUSHING THE BORDERS

I am not a great fan of Gladiolus but this one I like it is graceful and scented.

The 'Edna Everedge' glads leave me utterly cold, but there are some fantastic species and hybrids that are as classy as the primulinus types are coarse. This is one of my favourites: G. flanaganii aka suicide lily on account of its tendency to grow mainly on inaccessible cliff faces in S. Africa, It grows to around 50cms high and flowers from mid summer onwards.

Lovely. One to look out for. Did you grow it from seed?

No, bought a pot of it from CGF. They have a few interesting ones as do Desirable Plants at Totnes. Flanaganii is an easy doer and looks marvellous with its arching spikes. A great one to look out for is G. cardinalis, although it isn't always as easy to grow and flower well. Lots of water in summer for this, but sharp drainage is also important.

This is my favourite Gladiolus papilio, spreads well and is so Art Deco!

It mingles well with Helichrysum and fennel here

I like the description of it being "art Deco", but looking at the photos, it really is.

Have you tried 'Ruby' Charlie? It's a papilio hybrid - just as vigorous and hardy, but with slightly larger, more open, red flowers. I'm a little uncertain about letting it run about here, so I've avoided it until now. Every time I see it in full flower, I kick myself. Another in a similar vein, but most definitely not a papilio is 'David Hills'. Tallish, with greyish foliage and fetching, hooded, peachy red flowers with a pale yellow throat.

I never thought I'd see Gladioli described as 'Classy' or 'Art Deco' but I have to agree that they are seeing your pictures. The only one I grow is G.acidanthera which I'd describe as 'Cheap and Cheerful'.

Hi David, I did try Ruby, but doesn't behave here like papilio, but rather flowers once and then dissapears, it doesn't run but after flowering produces loads of rice grain sized corms which fizzel out if left in the ground - very dissapointing!

G.acidanthera is similar in behaviour here and flowers once then its gone, but it is cheap to replace so hardly seems worth jumping through too many hoops to keep it!!

I had problems with G. callianthus (acidanthera) on heavier soil in a previous garden, but here it behaves and flowers well every year. The corms are deeply buried in almost pure grit, which seems to suit them. Actually, 'behaving' is a bit misleading, because it spreads almost like Crocosmia forming big grassy mats of untidy foliage before suddenly bursting into flower. I really must get a potful of 'Ruby' and rip out some callianthus to make room.