My Missing Gladiolus
About six years ago, I planted a dozen or so gladiolus corms. (Corm is the name for gladiolus bulbs) For several years, I had beautiful, tall and vibrant gladiolus in my garden. Slowly, the blooms have become smaller and smaller until I had only one or two large gladiolus a year and a few tiny ones. I am not quite sure what happened. At one point I tried to thin them by digging up the corms and spacing them out. Honestly, I can’t quite remember what happened, but I know that my gladiolus did not rebound due to that step. I finally dug up my gladiolus plot again last week. Hardly a corm was to be found. I did find one shriveled, almost completely decayed corm with strange white things on it. Here the mystery began.
Suspect Snails
As you’ve guessed, the tiny, tiny white objects on my gladiolus corm were not roots but snails! Beautifully intricate whitish snails. I thought I had found the culprit, the predator of my corms. Eagerly, I took pictures and ran Google Lens on them. Surely, I was on the trail of a gladiolus pest. But, no. My searches from the picture only pulled up generic pictures of snail species. None of them were reputed to have gladiolus diets.
Gladiolus’ Pests
I decided to change my approach. Setting my phone aside, I pulled out various gardening books and poured over every gladiolus entry. Surely there would be mention of these pernicious snails. No. No. No, snails, only mites and nematodes. Snails seemed to have nothing to do with gladiolus. I really could find no reason to blame the snails for my glads’ death. Thankfully, instead of squashing the snails to death, I simply relocated them away from my garden. Do not execute mollusks until proved guilty.
Gladiolus/Snail Connection?
The best explanation I could find for the snails’ presence on my dead gladiolus corm is that snails eat decaying plant matter. They were probably just cleaning up. Are snails a gladiolus pest? Well, yes. I guess I wasn’t relaying the whole truth when I said the books didn’t mention them in relation to gladiolus. I meant that no one blamed them for eating or damaging living corms. They do like to nibble on the leaves and leave their own slimy trails on them. So, I am glad that I moved the baby snails away from my garden. Period.
The Actual Culprit
I don’t know what really happened to my glads. They were sads. (Sorry, that was hard to resist) I did read that new corms grow on top of the old corms every year. My best bet is that, left untended, they overcrowded themselves after several years. The good news: I now have reason to buy NEW Gladiolus. It seems that there is always just a thin film separating me and the purchase of new plants or seeds or corms…
In case you feel inspired here’s a link to an amazing looking Gladiolus grower. I don’t have any association with this company, I am just wowed by their look.
