Photography by Michelle Slatalla.
How and why does a flower fall out of fashion?
When Harriet Pratt (daughter of the then-chairman of Standard Oil) married her sweetheart in 1923 at what The New York Times described as “one of the most important weddings” of the season, her bridesmaids were fairly staggering under the weight of gladiolus.
Luckily, we can still get our hands on heirloom varieties. I’ll never go without glads again. As you can see, these lacy flowers bear only a faint resemblance to the heavy, blossom-logged varieties that have flooded the modern market.
“For a long time glads have been primarily grown for the cut-flower market, so there is more pressure to constantly create new varieties that are bigger, more ruffled (or whatever is currently in fashion), that store better for longer, and so on, and leads to older varieties being abandoned sooner,” says Kunst.
For starters, they’re breathtaking. Most aren’t the graceful, happy flowers you see above (the oldest varieties Kunst has date to the 1920s).
One reason it’s hard to find heirloom varieties is gladioli are warm-climate flowers.
“They’re unlike daffodils or peonies that can be completely neglected in most yards—or even abandoned when a house burns down or is left to rot —and yet manage to survive, waiting to be rediscovered and re-appreciated,” says Kunst.
Heirloom corms come in different sizes and colors.
‘Atom’ (circa 1946) has fiery flowers edged in white and was the first to flower in my garden.
‘Mexicana’ (circa 1967) is a swirl of lemony color with a red throat.
“Luckily for us, though, we found a small grower in Maine many years ago who’s a kindred spirit of ours,” says Kunst.
“Sometimes customers send us corms of old glads that have been passed down in their family or that they’ve found growing in an old garden or cemetery or even just out in a field somewhere where a house used to be,” says Kunst.
Gladiolus is a sun worshipper, with blooms that face in only one direction (you’re looking at the back of ‘Bibi’), which is why as early as 1916 florists were starting to relegate them to “studied” funeral arrangements, according to the journal Gladiolus Studies.
In addition to Old House Gardens, other sources of heirloom gladiolus varieties include: Telos Rare Bulbs (ships July through October), Annie’s Annuals, Brent and Becky’s Bulbs (available to order in January 2017), and Cates Family Glads.