Breeding and Seed Production of Ornamental Crops

History of Gladiolus

History of improvement of Gladiolus

Gladiolus:

• Breeding work in gladiolus has been carried out at IARI, New Delhi; IIHR, Hessaraghatta; NBRI Lucknow and Horticulture Experiment & Training Centre, Chaubattia, Uttrakhand and IHBT Palampur.
• NBRI released 11 cultivars of Gladiolus. Notable among these are 'Jwala', 'Priya Darshini' and 'Gazal'. These are open pollinated seedling selections.
• Another variety 'Kohra' is a cross between G. psittacinus hybrid and 'King Lear'.
• Systematic hybridization involving gladiolus 'Frendship' (2n = 60) with G. tristis (2n = 30), eight new triploids (2n = 45) cvs. namely, 'Manmohan', 'Monohar,' 'Manhar', 'Mukta', 'Manisha', 'Mohini', 'Triloki' and 'Sanyukta' were evolved. Two aneuploid cvs. 'Archana' and 'Arun' were also evolved.
• Gladiolus breeding at IARI started in seventies and three improved varieties namely 'Agni Rekha', 'Mayur' and 'Suchitra'. were released in 1980. Another promising variety 'Pusa Suhagin' has also been released by the institute.
• At IIHR, 4 gladiolus cvs. were released in 1979 and 2 in 1980. These are 'Meera', 'Nazrana', 'Poonam', 'Sapna', 'Aarti' and 'Apsara'. Further irradiation of corms of 3 cvs. of gladiolus with gamma rays resulted in the isolation of a desirable and stable mutant from cv. 'Wild Rose'. This mutant was named and released as 'Shobha' in 1980.
• Four very promising hybrids Chaubattia 6/4, Chaubattia 14/23, Chaubattia 19/1 and Chaubattia 21/10 were selected by Horticultural Experiment & Training Centre, Chaubattia, Uttrakhand.