I dug up some gladioli. How do I prepare them for storage in my apartment?

I've only been growing gladioli for five years. I thought they were unattractive flowers, because my neighbor at my old dacha had gladioli growing there—skinny, puny bushes with thin inflorescences and faded flowers. She always said her bulbs were old, which is why they rarely bloomed. It wasn't until I started growing gladioli myself that I realized gladioli can't have old bulbs. After all, when we plant a bulb, it sprouts, produces an inflorescence, blooms, and dies, and a new one forms in its place, which will grow into a new flower the following year. We simply throw away the old ones.

And when I heard the word "gladioli," I always thought of my mother's gladioli with their pale pink flowers. I didn't like them. We had all sorts of flowers: wonderful roses, huge dahlias, multicolored irises, gorgeous lilies, and many others, but for some reason, gladioli weren't very pretty. Perhaps it was just the variety.

And now gladioli are one of my favorite flowers.

Even digging them up for the winter, storing them, and germinating them in the spring isn't particularly difficult for me. I enjoy growing them, caring for them, eagerly awaiting the blossoms to open and admiring their vibrant blooms.

It's already October outside. It's very cold and rainy here, the soil is very damp, and there are light frosts at night. It's time to dig up the corms.

I read online that gladioli should be dug up when their foliage turns yellow and wilts. But these recommendations are for warmer climates, not Siberia. In all my years of growing gladioli, I've never seen their leaves turn yellow naturally.

I always dig them up with green leaves at the beginning of October, or a little later, if the weather permits.

What I did with the gladioli after I dug them up

This fall, I dug up my gladioli, brought them into the greenhouse, and left them there until evening. The damp soil on the bulbs dried out, so I shook it off and trimmed the leaves, leaving about 5 cm from the bulbs. I didn't rinse the bulbs because it was very cold outside and the water was icy.

At home, I washed the bulbs thoroughly in warm water, separated the old wrinkled bulbs and trimmed the roots.

I soaked the tubers for 40 minutes in a pink Maxim solution according to the instructions, using 4 ml of the product per 2 liters of water to disinfect the tubers from soil-borne diseases and pests.

Gladiolus corms can also be treated in a pink solution of potassium permanganate or phytosporin.

The bulbs have been treated and have turned pink. They need to be laid out on a newspaper or cloth so that they dry slightly and the remaining solution can drain off.

I laid the dried gladioli on a tray and placed them on a small table in the room to allow the bulbs to dry thoroughly. They need to be turned every day.

What kind of bulbs did I grow? I'll answer: "Various." There are some very large specimens, mostly dark burgundy gladioli. There are also medium and small ones, those I grew from cuttings. I think the size of the bulbs depends on the variety. And partly on how much nutrition the gladioli received during cultivation.

Some bulbs had two new tubers, others had many baby bulbs. I threw the baby bulbs away. I don't need them. If all my gladioli survive the winter well, I'll share some with my family or neighbors at the dacha; I don't need so many. I'll also buy new gladioli in different colors, which I don't have.

After about 2-3 weeks, the well-dried gladioli should be transferred to a box or cloth bags, after cutting off the stalk.

I put my gladioli in a closet in the hallway. It's cooler there than in the rooms. For a while, until the end of November, the box of gladioli will sit there, and I'll periodically check on how the bulbs are holding up. And in December, I'll sort the gladioli by size, put them in separate boxes, and put them in the refrigerator until spring.

Well, in the spring, everything will start all over again – the shoots will sprout, the roots will appear. I'll plant them in the flowerbed and wait for the first flowers to appear!