Growing flowers from bulbs from the dollar store

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It's May 18th, and to my surprise I'm seeing some sprouts from the dollar store bulbs I planted a couple of days after my birthday. I snipped off a little bit of the label, and wrote a date on it, but I'm not sure what kind of flowers they are - I think maybe gladiolus?

My motto here at the Tropical Paradise is to "give it a try". I've planted a lot of things here, some of which have succeeded, and many of which didn't. Luckily for me my memory of my failures is poor, so I don't let it worry me. Over the years I've planted a lot of plants, including bulbs, some of which I paid high prices for online, and some of which I got at the dollar store. And I have to admit that none of the dollar store bulbs has ever even gotten this far, so I'm happy.

And I give everything I plant here the royal treatment. It's called "digging a hundred dollar hole for a fifty dollar plant", and these bulbs are no exception. I dug a nice deep hole, filled it with potting soil, the good stuff, and added some more plant food and moisture crystals. I mean, why not? You never know!

A light rain just started a few minutes ago, and I think that these bulbs (there are three planted there) will get a good start. I'm hoping that they will get enough sunlight to bloom without getting burned up - this is Phoenix, after all! I guess I'll just have to wait and see. I'll let you know how it goes.

Update: May 19th. I Googled some images of gladiolus sprouts, and sure enough that's what they are. Hopefully the rain was helpful.


Update: May 21st. Wow, these plants grow fast! Here is what they look like today. You can see that I sprinkled some coffee grounds around them, and am keeping them well-watered. This group is along the Wiener Dog Highway.

Gladiolus sprouts May 21st, planted April 25th

And here are some that I hadn't really noticed before, which I planted on my birthday. I've been reading up on these plants, and it looks like they like hot weather (which we get a lot of here in Phoenix!), they're commonly called "sword lilies" (because of the shape of the leaves), and the bulbs are actually called "corms". I planted them in groups of threes, and it looks like two have come up in each group.

Gladiolus sprouts May 21st, planted April 23rd

The corms were pretty small, so hopefully the plants won't get too big for the space. I guess I'll just have to wait and see!

Update: May 29th. Looks like they're growing well, all six corms, and I'm hoping for the best. They're been there about a month, and from what I've read it takes three months to flower, so I really don't high hopes for them surviving through June and July (it gets crazy hot here, even dappled sunlight). But I guess I'll wait and see!

Gladiolus leaves after about a month. For scale, my wiener dog's legs are 2" long

Update: June 5th. Still growing strong! Must be almost two feet tall by now. The high temperatures are already over 100 here, but it shows no sign of minding it. If it can hold on for another month it may actually have flowers! I'll let you know.

Gladiolus on June 5th, growing tall! It's getting over 100 degrees here already in Phoenix, but this is an area with dappled shade, which protects it from sunburn. Hopefully there will be enough sunlight for blooms!

Update: June 16th. Still growing, and I'm now hopeful that it will bloom. Temperatures have been above 100 lately, but it gets regular water, and other than a few drooping leaves after a windy day that I had to cut off, it's doing fine. I'll keep you updated!

Gladiolus on June 16th, a little over two feet tall, and doing fine.

Update: June 22. I went and watched some YouTube videos about gladiolus (gladioli?), and apparently it's wise to stack the flower stalks so they don't tip over. I scrounged around in my garage and found one of the old rods that came with the flag for my trike, and stuck it in the ground. It's about six feet long, and I'm inclined to think that if my gladiolus do bloom, they can't possibly be that tall - I haven't seen any growth for quite a while. Time will tell!


Thank you for the encouragement! If you want to see daily pics of my adventures on my recumbent trike in suburban Phoenix (just for fun, of course!) you can follow me on buymeacoffee.com/bradhall, and you can buy me a coffee if you'd like to!

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