This question is for my wife since I know very little about flowers. She has raised a lot of glads in the past, but has never looked into this. The glads she raises will only produce a few blooms at a time. As the upper blooms open, the lower blooms die off. She says the ones she sees in floral arrangements have all or almost all of the blooms open.
After searching for a long time, all I could find was one site that said pinching off the top buds would make the rest open, but I couldn't find any other site to confirm that idea. Does anyone know how to make all the blooms open at the same time? I am looking for all answers, not just organic.
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freedhardwoods
- Senior Member
- Posts: 253
- Joined: Sun May 17, 2009 9:32 pm
- Location: Southwest IN
Ehh,, don't water on the flower shoots, it can get rot inside.
pinching idea! !:) Could work, I've done that with my father for adult guava tree to produce fruits.
(Our guava tree produce tons of flowers but no fruits. Every morning, we wake up with guava flowers fruity fragrance, but they are all on the ground.)
The idea look like hurting a plant make them life threatened and push to make reproduction before they die.
What we did is we made a slight cuts wounds on and around the stem above 2 feet from the ground. After that, the tree keep the flowers and give some perfect fruits, but more and more in the next years. Very interesting.
I'm still waiting for my first Gladiolas to bloom now, I start to see 4 flower shoots coming out, don't know how they will be doing.
How about poking to the stem with small needle?
Good luck!
pinching idea! !:) Could work, I've done that with my father for adult guava tree to produce fruits.
(Our guava tree produce tons of flowers but no fruits. Every morning, we wake up with guava flowers fruity fragrance, but they are all on the ground.)
The idea look like hurting a plant make them life threatened and push to make reproduction before they die.
What we did is we made a slight cuts wounds on and around the stem above 2 feet from the ground. After that, the tree keep the flowers and give some perfect fruits, but more and more in the next years. Very interesting.
I'm still waiting for my first Gladiolas to bloom now, I start to see 4 flower shoots coming out, don't know how they will be doing.
How about poking to the stem with small needle?
Good luck!
Florists' glads are cut when one or two buds are open, and then treated by adding certain chemicals to the water and maintaining a certain temperature range during storage of the flowers. That prolongs the existing flowers, while the remaining buds open. There's an abstract online of a study that was done to determine which chemicals work best for the purpose.
One technique sometimes used by home gardeners, who aren't cutting the flower spears, is to pinch off the top one or two flower buds. I've not done that, so I don't know how it would look.
One technique sometimes used by home gardeners, who aren't cutting the flower spears, is to pinch off the top one or two flower buds. I've not done that, so I don't know how it would look.
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freedhardwoods
- Senior Member
- Posts: 253
- Joined: Sun May 17, 2009 9:32 pm
- Location: Southwest IN