Gladiolus Flower Description. These summer-blooming bulbs produce elegant 3-foot flower spikes with orchid-like blooms. Sometimes called the sword lily the most widely-used English common name for these plants is simply gladiolus plural gladioli gladioluses or sometimes gladiolas.
The gladiolus is a typical spring bulb that blooms in summer. Most garden glads come in nearly any color and shade except for true blue in both solid and multicolored forms. The flowering spike which springs from a bulblike structure the corm can reach 6090 cm 23 feet in height.
Inches in diameter to gigantic over 5 inches.
Most are hardy to USDA Zone 7 although the nanus species is a hardy gladiolus that overwinters to Zone 5. Inches in diameter to gigantic over 5 inches. Gladiolus have been grown and loved by generations of gardeners. Gladiolus from Latin the diminutive of gladius a sword is a genus of flowering plants in the iris family Iridaceae.