Gladiolus papilio
This is a gladiolus for people who do not like gladioli. Gladiolus papilio carries hooded, nodding, bell-shaped flowers in muted colours that range from dusky mauve-pink to pale yellow-green, each with maroon-purple blotches and yellow crescents on the lower petals. They hang along slim arching stems above narrow grey-green leaves. Flowering runs November to February.
The subdued colouring lets it slip into planting where a modern gladiolus would look wrong. Use it threaded through grasses and later perennials, in a wild or naturalistic border, or in a gravel garden, and plant enough of it that the flowers read as a group. It is a good and unusual cut flower, and bees work the hooded flowers hard.
Plant corms about 10 cm deep in full sun in free-draining sandy or loam soil, though it also tolerates damp seepy ground. The important thing to know is that this species travels: it produces underground stolons and forms dense spreading colonies over time. Plant it where that is welcome, or contain it, and lift and thin every few years.
Reaches around 0.5 to 0.75 m in flower, spreading steadily by stolons.
Trimming: Cut flowered stems out at the base once the last flowers drop. Let the foliage die down naturally before clearing it in late autumn, as the corms feed through it.
Deadheading: Not needed for flowering. Removing spent stems before seed forms does limit one route of spread, though stolons are the main way this plant moves.
Fertilising: A light general fertiliser as growth starts in spring is enough. Feeding harder increases the rate at which the colony expands, which is rarely what you want.
Watering: Water through spring and early summer while stems are forming. Established colonies are undemanding and cope with both dry spells and damp ground.
Pest Control: Thrips are the main gladiolus pest and show as silvery streaking on leaves and marked flowers. Aphids and spider mites can also appear in hot dry weather.
Disease Management: Corm rot and botrytis follow wet, poorly drained conditions. Lift and inspect corms when thinning the clump, and discard any that are soft.
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