Garden Plants - Gladiolus

The Latin word gladius means sword, and this flower was named for the shape of its leaves. Gladiolus was also called xiphium, from the Greek word xiphos, meaning sword. This flower is said to have represented the Roman gladiators. Really interesting idea, a bunch of centurions with Dame Edna bouquets

European Gladiolus can be used in a variety of medicinal ways; the corm could be used as a poultice and for drawing out thorns and splinters, and a mixture of powdered corms and goat's milk was a favourite remedy for colic. In the eighteenth century, African Gladioli were imported in large quantities to Europe from South Africa.

The first hybrid gladiolus appeared in 1837, and Victorian gardeners - including Monet and Gertrude Jekyll - loved them. Sadly, of the thousands introduced since then, 99% have disappeared and today it's very difficult to find any survivors from before the 1940s.

Okay, what you early want to hear about is Dame Edna Everage, I know. So here we go. The gladiolus is Dame Edna's signature flower, as the gardenia was that of 'Lady Day', Billie Holliday.

I was lucky enough once to see the great Dame live in cabaret, and here is what happened. Dame Edna threw gladiolus into the audience and then made us stand up, and 'thrust,' and 'tremble' the flowers in time to her music. Yes, one feels like a complete Charlie, but not to do it would have been worse, as the great Dame then picked on you from the stage and made a mockery of your clothes and haircut. During her final song, with the fairly blunt line of 'try to grab life by the shaft', one of the flowers being thrust by an audience member in the front row snapped in half - 'Gladiolus interruptus,' Dame Edna yelled. It was a moment of pure comic genius.

Garden gladiolus photograph by x-eyedblonde, used under a creative commons attribution licence