Description
(formerly offered as Gladiolus imbricatus RS.0572)
This is indisputably the best of the Mediterranean species, a genus that contains a lot of weeds as well as this gem.
A native of high-attitude, mountain marshes in Turkey, it makes a dense spike of large flowers with very rich colouring, usually in shades of deep purple to carmine. It is regarded as the hardiest for very cold climates and seems to have no other demerit, in gardens, other than its rarity.
Sunny well drained site with adequate moisture when in growth.
This came originally from Reinhard Suckow and it arrived labelled as G. caucasicus, however subsequently we were advised that it was wrongly named and G.imbricatus was the correct name. We have offered it as G.imbricatus for some years but in fact the expert opinion was wrong and Reinhard was correct, it is G.caucasicus and it keys out as G.caucasicus in Eleonora Gabrielian’s “The genus Gladiolus (Iridaceae) in southern Transcaucasia” (Bocconea 13: pp. 445-455 (2001) ).
