Glorious Glads sampler    

Sampler

Glads are easy, fun, and last forever in bouquets. We’ll send you 3 each of 4 of our favorite heirloom varieties, labeled, and great for your area. (Several possibilities are pictured.).

For more of each variety, order additional samplers. Gladiolus care.

G. callianthus,
Abyssinian gladiolus     1888

A fragrant glad? Yes! And it’s so graceful and different that even glad-haters love it. Its exotic, late-blooming, ivory flowers with purple hearts dip and sway on sturdy, arching stems. Collected from the mountains of Ethiopia in 1844, it reached America by 1888 when it was featured as brand new in Garden and Forest magazine. Formerly Acidanthera, now Gladiolus callianthus ‘Murielae’, 3-4 feet, from Holland. Chart and care.

G. nanus
Elvira gladiolus     1956

Small-flowered and informal, ‘Elvira’ is a perky soft pink with its lower petals splashed with ruby. It’s one of the Nanus group of petite, early-blooming, hardier-than-most glads, and perfect for summer’s simple, no-fuss bouquets. 2-3 feet, from Holland. Chart and care.

Nova Lux gladiolus     1965

Bright yet soft, the lemon yellow color of this full-sized glad is just right, carrying across the garden and lighting up bouquets. We’re fans of its classic, triangular shape, too, and the old-fashioned smoothness of its barely rippled petals. 4 feet, from Holland. Chart and care.

Plum Tart gladiolus     1976

A staff favorite, this ruffled, angular beauty almost vibrates with the intensity of its deep, saturated color. It’s also “amazingly healthy and prolific,” in the words of a top professional grower. 4 feet, from Holland. Chart and care.

Priscilla gladiolus     1977

We’d never offered a bulb from the 1970s before, but when eight of our Maine-grown glads were lost to a brutally hot, dry summer, and two of our Dutch-grown heirlooms went commercially extinct, we knew it was time for ‘Priscilla’. White with ruffled, bright rose petal edges and a lemon-yellow throat, this is not only a gorgeous glad, it’s an unusually hardy and enduring glad – and an heirloom of the future! 4-5 feet, from Holland. Chart and care.

Starface gladiolus     1960

Rarest

This just might be the most beautiful glad we’ve ever grown. Charmingly small-flowered, it has upper petals of dappled apricot and lower petals of pale yellow spiked with ruby. Victorian gardeners loved patterned glads like this, and we say it’s high time for a revival! 3 feet, from Maine. Chart and care.

Trader Horn gladiolus     1972

Red is the most iconic color for glads, rich, bold, and dramatic in the garden or bouquets. The elegantly smooth petals of this 1970s classic are a bright scarlet delicately brush-stroked with cream. It’s named for the Dutch trader whose autobiography is subtitled A Young Man’s Astounding Adventures in 19th-Century Equatorial Africa. 4-5 feet, from Holland. Chart and care.

Wine and Roses gladiolus     1976

With its bold splashes of burgundy and white, this shell-pink beauty may remind you of exotic Miltonia orchids. It’s a traditional glad, larger than ‘Elvira’ but not too big, delicately ruffled, and like all glads it lasts and lasts in bouquets. 4 feet, from Holland. Chart and care.

Dauntless gladiolus     1940

You’ll never mistake ‘Dauntless’ for a modern supermarket glad. We call it the Lauren Bacall of glads because its smooth, stylish, angular blooms recall an era of wide lapels and big, sexy hats. Pink with a dramatic splash of ruby in the throat, it’s also one of the oldest surviving traditional glads. 4 feet, from Maine. Last offered in 2024. If you’d like to be notified when it’s back in stock, click here to sign up for an email alert.

Green Lace gladiolus     1961

No matter how hard we try, we can never seem to capture the soft, juicy spring green of this small-flowered glad in a photo – so you’re just going to have to grow it yourself to see how wonderful it is. Daintily ruffled and cute as a button, it always draws ooos and ahhs in the garden and makes every bouquet more interesting. 3-4 feet, from Maine. Last offered in 2024. If you’d like to be notified when it’s back in stock, click here to sign up for an email alert.

Lucky Star gladiolus     1966

Fragrance in glads is as rare as hen’s teeth. Although a few wild ones have it, breeding it into modern glads has proved difficult. In fact, ‘Lucky Star’ was the only fragrant seedling to come from many years of crosses made by New Zealander Joan Wright using garden glads and the even more fragrant Abyssinian glad. Its bold, angular good looks are a bonus, and night-flying hawk moths love it. 4 feet, from Maine. Last offered in 2024. If you’d like to be notified when it’s back in stock, click here to sign up for an email alert.

Peter Pears gladiolus     1958

Named for a honey-voiced English tenor and pronounced “Peers”, this warm, summery flower is a harmonious orange blending to a golden throat (get it?) with a splash of strawberry. Excellent for adding some color or a little height to any garden. 4’, from Holland. Last offered in 2024. If you’d like to be notified when it’s back in stock, click here to sign up for an email alert.