Gladiolus Lorena - Sword Lily

The Gladiolus or Butterfly Gladiolus 'Lorena' bears remarkably contrasting flowers, pure white with a yellow throat maculated with dark orange. A colour that doesn't go unnoticed in the garden, and flowering spikes that make a sensation in bouquets. It blooms for many weeks in summer. Rarely available for sale, this variety will be the pride of the gardener who cultivates it. We deliver them in a large size of 12+ for the best flowering.

Cultivated gladioli are hybrids, they belong to the Iridaceae family. They are divided into 3 main groups: Grandiflorus (large-flowered), Primulinus (early) and Nanus (butterflies). 'Lorena', although quite unclassifiable, can be classified as Nanus, characterised by rather small and often maculated flowers, irregularly arranged on 60 to 70 cm (24 to 28in) tall stems, each carrying up to 20 florets. The upper petal of each flower has a recurved hood-like shape.

'Lorena' is a cultivar derived, among others, from the Gladiolus papilio, a species native to the marshy and mountainous areas of the Drakensberg, in South Africa. It is a perennial and deciduous herbaceous plant with stoloniferous and tuberous roots. Its foliage consists of thin, rather short, sword-shaped leaves, green-grey in colour, arranged in a fan shape and forming a tuft about 55 cm (22in) tall. The leaves are topped by a flowering stem 90 cm (35in) to 1 m (3ft) tall, ending in a 40 cm (16in) spike with numerous buds. The hooded flowers resemble those of certain orchids, or even cannas, and are carried by very thin stems. They appear in 'Lorena' in a perfect white, each petal being traversed by a fuchsia pink spot. The two small lateral petals are coloured in tender yellow and marked by an orange to red triangle at the base. The storage organ is a corm, which is a swollen stem with scales. Each corm will produce 2 or 3 flowering spikes. The foliage of the gladiolus is deciduous, it disappears a few weeks after flowering.

The 'Lorena' Gladiolus has a great chance of changing the perception of detractors of this plant, often considered stiff and lacking elegance, to the point that it is relegated among the vegetables in the vegetable garden for cut flowers. Gladioli and their long coloured spikes 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 flowering. Plant 'Lorena' in beds of grasses, forget-me-nots, and perennial flax for example. Play with white for elegance and add here and there silver foliage, or bronze fennel.

For bouquet making: pick, early in the morning, gladioli that have opened two or three flowers. Leave 5 to 6 leaves per stem to allow the bulb to continue its development. Remove the first two buds at the top of the flowering spike. Plant at intervals of ten days in March/April. You will have flowers 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 jewelry or on carpets and fabrics made by the Semites before the Christian era.