Brighten the garden with other flowers following the iris bloom. Some glads planted in place of the tulips after they bloomed.

Just beautiful. I tried an experiment with glads this year. I cut the leaves down in late fall, and put straw over the top. Sheets of straw, like you pull off a bale, not fluffed out. I removed it in the spring, and all my glads came back, and are just as large and nice as they were last year. I've been told I might get three years from them this way, then they will start going downhill. But three years I don't have to dig and replant is good.

As long as they are protected from freezing, they are supposed to survive. I buy the assorted colors in mixed bags from Lowe's for about $10 for 50. Same thing with tulips. The expensive tulips never seem to repeat for me. You can save all your tender perennials if you have a cool basement or one of the old root cellars. It has just been easier to just replant rather than try to save them.

Jerry, Those are some of the most beautiful glads I have ever seen!

Those are just cheap, off the rack glads bought in bulk packs. Buy the assorted mix for the best surprises. Lowe's had unusually large, solid corms but they are stocked early so I bought them and kept them in my garage until early May. They become well picked over if you wait until about time to plant them. I haven't tried it but I have read where you can plant a group of them separated by about two weeks repeated several times and have a nice flower garden for a couple of months.

How do you keep those glads standing upright?
Mine all flopped in the hard rain.I had to cut them and bring them in.

I planted mine really, really deep. Probably about a foot deep. They say you should start out with less depth and hill them, but this worked for me.

I was affraid of deep hole solution. Glads might not be for me then.

I love the Gladiolas. I did have a similar idea. I bought the smaller version, the short Glamini Glads and planted them around the garden. I bought 200 and they come in 25 to a bag. So I spaced out the planting and kept planting a bag or two every week or two. That staggered the blooms. Of course next year they will all come up at pretty much the same time in the spring. But they are just so pretty with all their colors and color combos. I did put some in my square iris bed between the irises as well as lots of other places in my garden.

Please let us know how they do next year, Rita.

They come up the following year. Of course, my garden is mostly heavily mulched which I am sure really helps. I just had to pull most of the ones from past years when I was redoing beds as they were in the wrong place. They are so cheap that I don't mind buying new ones.

I used to have the regular sized glads too and they come always up the following year too. But I pulled all those and tossed them after I discovered the Glamini glads. I do so like the shorter version.

One of the big stars in my garden are the roses. They have a massive spring flush in very early June, Then I cut them back and they start blooming again end of July, early August. Then usually just continue off and on the rest of the summer and fall.

My few roses are yucky now, combined with 100 degree heat and Japanese beetles. Somehow they survive and freshen themselves as the weather cools. My red hibiscus buds are eaten before they have a chance to open. All in all, I have something blooming from the spring frosts to the fall frosts but it is surely a chore keeping the weeds away from the plants. Good thing I am retired.

A few daylillies are still blooming. "Pumpkin Time' has just started & goes on until the end of Sept. 'Melon Extract' has a smaller flower & still performing.

Oh, I have Pumpkin Time too and mine just recently started up also.

The second rose posted by Rita is my idea of really nice. Put it with a dark red and a solid gold or yellow and she would have a show stopper. Most roses I buy commit suicide along about this time of the year. A single red and a double pink KO stay fresh after the heat and I got lucky with a yellow patio or tree rose that has done well.

The orange rose is Gingersnap. I have some red Hybrid Teas planted in back of it plus there are lots of lilies in the area. I really have only a very few HT roses but I do really like the ones that I have.

Right now the only thing blooming in my iris bed is Johnson grass .... *sigh*....

Sad!

I have a 350 gallon pond which is always a nice spot in my yard no matter what the bloom season.



Some 4 O'Clocks are growing in back of the pond in front of the shrubs in that area.