Collection of 60 Blue Gladioli

This is a collection of 60 Gladiolus in shades of blue and purple, cool tones that are rather rare in these plants. It consists of the varieties 'Sweet Blue', 'Home Coming', and 'Purple Flora', in a gradient ranging from lavender blue to pure violet. With unmatched elegance in a vase, their spikes loaded with large flowers are spectacular in flower beds and summer borders. Give them a cool but well-drained soil, and a sunny exposure.

This collection consists of:

- 20 Sweet Blue gladiolus: with large flowers of a light lavender blue with mauve reflections, celestial, bright, with ruffled petals, as if woven from satin. Its stems are strong, tall, about 1 m (3ft) high, and covered with numerous buds.

- 20 Home Coming gladiolus: a new variety of great class, with large almost white flowers adorned with a subtle violet pattern at the throat. They are tightly packed in a perfect order on long, tall, and bright spikes. Its robust floral stem rises 80-80 cm (32in) above the ground.

- 20 Purple Flora gladiolus: its sturdy 1 m (3ft) tall stems bear spikes of flowers of a pure and rich violet, without any trace of white or pink. A rare colour in these plants, of undeniable elegance, easy to combine with other flowers in bouquets and in the garden.

Individually labelled.

Cultivated gladioli, belonging to the Iridaceae family, are hybrid plants. They are divided into 3 main groups: Grandiflorus (large flowers), Primulinus (early), and Nanus like (butterflies). 'Sweet Blue', 'Home Coming', and 'Purple Flora' belong to the Grandiflorus group.  Gladiolus is a perennial herbaceous plant with wide, sword-shaped leaves arranged in a fan shape, forming a clump of leaves that are topped by a dense spike bearing large funnel-shaped flowers. The storage organ is a corm, which is a swollen stem equipped with scales. To enjoy flowers throughout the summer, plant your corms at intervals of 15 days from March to May.

Gladioli and their long coloured stems are a symbol of the 70s and somewhat formal floral arrangements. While they are irreplaceable in bouquets, in gardens, their silhouette needs the presence of plants with lush foliage that will enhance their rich but wildly romantic flowering. Plant their corms among clumps of sage, tobacco, bee balm, and forget-me-nots, for example, or among small ornamental grasses like Stipa or blue fescues. They are regulars in cottage gardens, where they accompany vegetables well. For making bouquets, cut the flower stems when the first floret begins to open. Plant them at intervals of two weeks from early spring until the end of June to flower the house and garden all summer.

The gladiolus owes its name to the shape of its sword-like leaves, derived from the Latin gladius. Its wild forms were often represented in jewellery.