In the Yard: Parrot Gladiolus

• By ED CULLEN
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jul 31, 2009 - Page: 1D

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Dixie Bulbs, a few miles outside Bernice in Union Parish, is offering parrot gladiolus bulbs  along with their other selections of daffodils and heirloom bulbs for fall planting.

“We are so excited to finally have enough of this rare, old gladiolus to share,” said Kris Fleming, owner of Dixie Bulbs.

“The parrot gladiolus is one of the original and oldest varieties grown in the South,” Fleming said.

Listed under Gladiolus natalensis or Gladiolus daleni, the heirloom glad is bright orange and yellow blooms on 4- to 5-foot-tall stems. The blooms look handpainted with fine orange lines running through the yellow on the backs of petals. In Zone 7 south, they don’t have to be dug in the fall.

Fleming hasn’t had to stake the parrots which multiply in large clumps. Blooming in north Louisiana starts in late May.

Plant in reasonably well-drained soil in full sun for blooms in early May south of Alexandria. Hardy Zones 7-10.

The Dixie Bulbs Web site is http://www.dixiebulbs.com. E-mail questions to info@dixiebulbs.com. The nursery is shipping now for early fall planting. Each large bulb, which produces a single plant, is $9. “But you plant them once and pass them on to your grandchildren,” Fleming said. Smaller ones which will take a year to bloom are $5.