Well, That’s a Bummer
Current Mood Music: Ambrosia,“That’s How Much I Feel”
Welcome to the world where sometimes (actually quite often) things don’t go according to plan. Anytime you’re working with plant life you’re at the mercy of Mother Nature, and as try as you might, have no control whatsoever.
A few months ago I was at a gardening supply store and purchased a couple of bags of gladiolus bulbs. They were an afterthought, really, as I didn’t really have a spot in our space to plant them. But I bought them, anyway. I planted them the following day against one of our fence walkways in a long narrow row, content with making room for them in the most awkward of places. The next week or two later I was at a different gardening/farming supply store and found several bins of gladiolus bulbs on sale! Yippee! I thought to myself. I grabbed a couple more bags and planted them staggered against the first row of gladiolus I had planted. I ran out of space so I planted some in a different part of the garden in between some transplanted asters.
Both successions were growing nicely, some getting super tall at about 3.5’! I was stoked and really excited for my soon-to-be gladiolus harvest when I started noticing colored buds forming on a few of the plants. When it came time for me to check on them for harvest I noticed the bottom blooms were streaked with white and not the rich purple they were supposed to be. Three other bloomed plants had the same markings. Uh oh, I thought to myself. I began Google searching what I feared would be catastrophic. The results from my search all came down to a diagnosis of Cucumber Mosaic Virus (CMV), an incurable viral disease passed through aphids, and other pests. The virus can be dormant in infected corms or bulbs and not noticed until the flower blooms or there is streaking on the foliage, which there was on just a couple of the plants and not all. The virus can quickly spread to other host plants, too, with no cure in sight. Sounds a little like another virus we are dealing with right now :*(
I was devastated and disappointed, but quickly sprung into action and dug up every gladiolus in that patch and threw them all in the garbage (not the compost!). I sanitized every tool and vessel I used with bleach and water. I checked in on the other patch of glads and dug up all the suspicious looking ones. I’m closely monitoring the existing glads from the other patch and their neighbors. It’s too soon to tell how everything else is doing but I’m out there every day looking for even the most subtle of suspicious activity.
Because I sourced my bulbs from two different suppliers (both reputable) it’s really hard to pinpoint the exact source of the infected bulbs. Could it be the bargain bulbs? Or the other ones that were the last in stock that I bought? There’s no way in knowing for sure. But lesson learned: Be cautious of bargain bins and the last of a store’s stock.