hi gary welcome to the garden helper. you have chosen the number one easiest flower bulb to grow in south alabama! glads will naturalize beautifully, without much care. in fact, the only realy care they need is to be dug up every few years to seperate the clumps.
as for planting things on top of them, i know it works, especially if you find a companion plant to plant at the same time as the bulbs. i have seen them (my grandmother had lots of them in Pensacola) but for the life of me, i can remember what she had on top of them!

i do know they grow well under pine trees, and in the south, that is a very important consideration.

check back often as i know there are others who will have an idea of good companion plants for your gladiolas.

sheri, generally the ones i have planted have had strong enough stems to hold them if they are getting enough light. it is when they are too shaded that they stretch for the light and end up with weak stems.

I love to grow glads & have many planted. Being a zone5er, we are usually supposed to dig up our glad bulbs in the fall, but I have never found it neccessary. Mine always come back beautiful as ever year after year. I do plant bulbs on top of mine also. I have tulip & daffodils on the upper layer. The tulips & daffs bloom early spring, when they have died down, the glads come up to show off. I also have kniphofia planted in my glad beds which tends to come up late spring & makes a nice companion to my glads since they both have the tall upright stems. I have never needed to stake mine either, but they are in full sun. Since the glads & kniphofia are such bold & tall plants I like to soften my bed with gypsophila too. It is puffy & airy & tends to camoflauge the long hard stems of the glads & kniphofia & makes it look like a sea of brilliant colors floating in soft clouds. I plant the gypsophila in 2 week intervals to keep a constant bloom from mid May through August.

Happy Gardening Chrissy

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