If you want to enjoy tender corms such as gladioli year after year, you will need to protect them from frost. To do this, you should lift them up out of the ground before the first frost and store them in a cool, dry place until the following spring.

Method

1. Leave the plant to die down after flowering, this way the leaves will have time to build up a store of food for next year's flowers.
2. Before the first frost, ease a garden fork into the ground and lift out the corms.
3. Put the corms in a dry sunny place to dry off, such as a windowsill or in a greenhouse.
4. Clean up the corms to reduce the risk of them rotting during storage.
5. Take off the remains of the stem and remove any soil or loose skin. Any small cormlets that have formed can be removed and grown on.
6. Store the corms in a dry, cool but frost-free place in a labelled paper bag or seed tray until the following spring, at which point they may be replanted.