>> "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is brought to you by the following... >> That flower feeling.

♪ At home.

♪ At work.

♪ Or anytime.

♪ CalFlowers is a proud sponsor of "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom," where flowers and wellness go hand in hand.

>> We have fresh in all our stores, from soups and steaks and all things flour to all things flowering.

Custom fresh arrangements designed by our in-store florists at Albertsons Companies.

>> With additional support from the following... Dollar Tree.

♪ >> Today, I bring you glad tidings -- literally.

Gladiolas are in the spotlight.

I have tips on planting, care, and handling.

And create both simple and impressive arrangements.

I'm J Schwanke.

Welcome to "Life in Bloom."

Today, we're focusing on Gladiolus, a spectacular flower by any standard.

They're a popular flower in gardens, providing a backdrop for other flowers, with heights up to 4 feet tall.

Glads also became very popular in memorial arrangements.

So much so that many people regarded them only as funeral flowers.

The size and the scale of glads can be intimidating.

But their tiding can be enjoyed in many ways beyond formal services.

Before we look at some arrangements, let's learn about how glads are grown.

♪ They're planting here today with your machinery and they're hand-setting the bulbs.

>> They're hand-setting the bulbs.

We feel that's a very important part of our production to get straight stems... >> Uh-huh.

>> ...get our spacing at the optimum for disease control and for cutting and for -- And we actually vary that by some of our varieties.

We know they're bigger and more lush, so we plant them further apart.

>> They're hand-setting that to make sure that that bulb stays right.

>> The right side up.

That's correct.

As I can show you here, this is the top.

>> Right.

>> And this is the new... >> Oh, wow!

>> ...that spike coming out.

>> Okay.

>> And there will probably be another one and possibly a third one, since these are fairly good-sized bulbs.

>> Okay.

>> And, of course, you can see the roots that are starting to -- >> Wow!

>> Just starting to come.

>> And if you planted it upside down, it would still come up, but the flower would have to come up and come around.

>> Exactly.

It's gonna be a crooked stem and it's gonna take much longer to come out of the ground.

>> So, now once this is set, then you cover them up?

>> We will cover them up.

We'll come in with another tractor with a bed shaper and we will bury these things about 4 1/2 to 5 inches deep.

>> How long does it take a gladiola from this point till we have that glad?

>> Uh...100 days, 110 days, let's say, in general.

So, we cut a little bit differently than most growers, since we're not growing bulbs for the coming season.

>> Okay.

>> And for disease issues and things like that, we cut the entire stalk at the ground level.

And then, take the leaves off.

Try to leave three leaves.

And there you go.

>> How many people will check out this glad before it goes?

>> Well, our first line is the cutters in the field.

They're making a lot of decisions.

You know, if it's too crooked, we don't cut it or we cut it on the ground.

>> Okay.

>> If it's nice and straight, then they cut it and then bring it in.

They'll look at it.

And then it goes into the packing house, where it's graded, bunched, and then it's boxed.

>> So, then those bunches we saw in the fields come here.

>> Mm-hmm.

And, so, they're looking at length, head length, which is the start of the flower to the tip, matching them up so we have a beautiful bunch when we're done.

We cut by hand.

We harvest by hand.

It goes into the shed -- it's bunched by hand.

Machines can do some of these jobs, but they don't have a human eye and a love that our workers do.

♪ Gladiola is a genus of perennial corms flowering plants in the Iris family.

It is sometimes called "the sword lily."

Its name came from the Latin word "gladius," which means "sword," and given the name due to the fact that its leaves and petals are tall, pointed, and long, like a sword.

Gladioli grow from round, symmetrical corms that are enveloped in several layers of brownish, fibrous tunics.

The spectacular giant flower spikes in commerce are the results of centuries of hybridization and selection.

The flowering spike, which springs from the corm, reaches 2 to 3 feet in height with numerous funnel-shaped flowers, all clustered on one side of the stem.

There are six petal-like floral parts and sparse, sword-like leaves.

Gladiolus are available in a broad range of colors.

The Gladiolus flower symbolizes honor and remembrance, among other meanings.

Gladiolus are the flowers associated with a 40th wedding anniversary.

Gladiolus was the word Frank Neuhauser correctly spelled to win the first National Spelling Bee, in 1925.

♪ So, Kim, you have -- You were my original guest on "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom."

>> The debut.

>> Right, right.

The pilot.

So, we've done this many times, in many iterations of the other shows that I did before I did "Life in Bloom."

>> Right.

>> And, so, I love having you.

>> I love being here.

>> If her voice sounds familiar, it's also the voice at the beginning of this show.

>> I love it.

>> What I thought we would do today is, we would make some glad projects.

And when I started thinking about it, I was like, "Oh, I wish I could make this.

Well, I should make this.

Oh, it's like this."

And then, so, I decided we'd make three things, okay?

>> Oh, great!

I love to learn.

>> So, with tradition, there is a mid-century-modern vase called the glad vase.

>> Mm-hmm.

I've never seen one of these before.

>> This is it, right?

They made these vases because they hold glads appropriately, right?

>> Yeah, because glads are kind of -- The stems are so long, I end up having to cut them down.

>> Correct.

>> You know, I'll buy them at a farmer's market or on the side of the road and cut them down.

I mean, they're beautiful no matter what, but, I mean, with one of these, you can really highlight them.

>> So, we are going to use -- I have some peach-colored ones... >> Oh, beautiful!

>> ...to show you with this.

And, so, if you want to hand me that water there...

So, it's interesting, because these vases are a little bit fragile, and so -- >> It's amazing that the vases really lasted that long, this many years -- right?

-- without getting broken.

>> So, I only filled this up halfway.

>> Right.

>> Because I'm gonna displace so much water with the stems.

>> Okay.

>> Right?

And, so, now, here is the thing that's true about this, is that when you put this in here -- I'm cut-- Mm, I'm cutting that much off, right?

Because that's about where it's gonna go.

>> Right.

>> And these glads have been tipped.

And, so, what happens is -- >> If you don't, they don't open all out, right?

>> Correct.

Correct.

>> Yes.

>> And that's part of the issue is that some people don't realize that that will cause that.

And what happens is, it's a surge of ethylene that goes up the stem, but then that surge of ethylene will cause all of them to open up.

And then, as this opens up, I'll pull these guys off as they expire.

>> Right.

>> And then I'll shorten them up a little bit more.

>> So you don't have to look at it.

>> So, by the end, it will be like this, 'cause, yeah, you would have nothing right here.

Right?

Right?

You want it to be pretty.

But it's interesting, because I don't think it takes as many glads, 'cause, obviously, these are big guys.

I mean, these are big glads.

And, sometimes, there are smaller ones.

There's one called colvillii which is a miniature glad.

And it is -- It has tinier, smaller, little -- >> That center one's big enough where you can put both of the stems in there, right?

>> You can, right?

And, so, in this one -- So, I think we did 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

>> Beautiful.

>> If this was our centerpiece and we wanted it to be a nice little, low centerpiece, what are we gonna do with that?

>> Yeah.

>> You have cutters there.

>> I do.

>> But what I'm gonna show you is, if I cut here...

I have a short flower.

Right?

>> Amazing.

Yeah.

>> If I cut here, I have another short flower.

If I cut -- So, I'm cutting in between the flowers.

>> Right.

♪ >> I'm gonna let you keep doing that, I'm gonna show you one more thing, okay?

>> Okay.

>> Okay, see, so, I know that you're -- 'Cause you're, like, an entertainment buff, too, right?

>> [ Laughing ] Yes.

>> So, if I were to go... ♪ Da-da-da-da ♪ >> ♪ Da-da-da-da ♪ [ Laughs ] >> So, right.

It's like Morticia Addams, right?

>> [ Laughs ] >> I'm cutting off the tops of my glads so I can... >> That's true.

>> ...so I can make a topiary tree.

♪ So, this is a little guy called Pittosporum.

Variegated Pittosporum.

Okay, so, I took another piece of soaked flower foam.

>> Okay.

>> And I wrapped -- This is Anchor tape.

It's waterproof Anchor tape, okay?

So, I just made a cage all the way around.

And what that's gonna do is, it's gonna prevent it from falling apart when I stick stems in it.

>> I see.

>> So, then what I'm gonna do with this now is, I am going to take this guy and I'm gonna shove him down on these stems.

Okay?

>> Yeah.

>> Just like that.

Okay?

So, now I've got my greenery at the bottom and my topiary -- >> I was wondering what you were gonna go.

>> Right, right, right?

So, now I'm gonna go in here.

And I'm cutting my glads apart the same way that you did.

I'm not gonna cut them apart into singles.

I'm gonna use them as doubles.

>> Okay.

♪ I was so looking forward to doing this.

I really was.

>> Oh, that's so awesome!

>> But I buy these every year.

When these come out -- As soon as they're out at the farmer's market, I buy these.

I've never done anything like this before, so this will be fun to try at home again.

And all you need, like you said, is really just one of those -- >> Yeah.

Just a little -- just a little dish.

>> Yeah.

>> What do you think?

>> I love it.

>> So, yeah -- So, now, look, we have three fun things that we did.

We have this.

We have that.

>> In no time at all.

>> Yeah.

>> Right?

>> Yeah.

And, well, Kim, this is fun.

How about in a few minutes, we get together for "Flower Cocktail Hour"?

>> Ooh!

I could use a cocktail.

>> Okay.

Perfect.

We'll do it.

It's wonderful to have a bunch of glads in a vase in your house.

And one of the things we want to do is encourage our glads to open up all the way to the end of the stem.

So, there's a little secret that I talk about, especially when our glads look like this.

When we first get them, they may be showing just a little bit of color.

And that's where we want to cut them in the garden.

If we have them in the garden, cut them as soon as they're starting to show color.

Or you might get them that are just starting to open up.

But the secret to getting them to look like this is something that I call tipping the glads.

Let's put these glads in a vase, and I'll show you how it's done.

♪ Obviously, when we're putting our glads into our vase, we're using ice-cold water and we're also using our flower food inside there.

That's important, because the glads want the food to help them open up the flowers.

But there's still one more secret, and that's tipping the glads.

This is something I learned from my grandfather, but something that works so effectively.

When we tip the glads, we'll go in and remove the top 3 or 4 buds and simply break it out of the tip.

When we break it out of the tip, it causes a surge of ethylene in the stem, and that will cause all of the blooms to open up all the way to the end.

If we don't remove the tips, what will happen over a period of time is, they aren't as advanced in their growth process.

So they'll turn yellow and they may even droop.

So tipping the glads is going to allow us to do something to them that's going to make our vase beautiful for days and days.

I'm channeling my grandfather, "Carnation" Joe Green, and we're going to create a hand-wired glamelia.

I have fond memories of composite flowers, especially glamelias.

A flower made out of a gladiola is difficult.

And I learned about that when I was a little kid.

I would watch my grandpa hand-wire and tape the glamelia, just like we're going to do today.

So, we'll create one blossom out of different sizes of gladiola florets.

We'll select an open blossom, a half-open blossom, and a bud.

We'll remove the calyx off the outside so that we expose the bottom of each one of those buds.

We'll take the slightly open blossom and cut of the bottom.

When we cut off the bottom, we want to make sure that we don't dislodge the petals, but we cut off enough so that we dislodge the stamen and the pollen on the inside.

And it allows us to place the bud down inside the slightly more open blossom.

♪ We'll do the same with the open blossom, cutting off the bottom to dislodge the pollen and letting it fall out.

We'll place the bud and the blossom inside the more-open blossom.

This forms the center of the glamelia.

I use a piece of florist's wire, then, to cross-wire that blossom and tape it.

♪ We set the center aside and then we work with open blossoms, cutting off the back of each blossom and dislodging the stamens and the pollen.

Carefully, we open up the blossoms so that we have the blossoms laying together in a row.

We make a large hairpin and place it through the glad blossom.

Then we make a smaller hairpin and send it through the blossom in opposite direction.

Gathering up the wires, we tape those together.

We use this process for all the blossoms.

However, some blossoms we'll divide in half.

We use the larger blossoms on the outside and the half-blossoms towards the inside.

Once we've got all the petals wired and taped, we can start to fabricate the flower.

We'll use the smaller petals towards the center, overlapping them so that we cover the wire.

As we gather the petals around, we'll tape them to our stem.

After all the petals are in place, we'll cut away the fat.

That's what my grandpa used to call it when we'd cut away additional wires before we taped it so we got a nice, perfect tapered stem.

You can use foliage or ribbon to support the back of the blossom.

Today, we're gonna use this beautiful lace.

We place that on the back to help support the petals and tape it to the stem.

So, that's my version of a wired-and-taped glamelia.

Okay, so, I wanted to show you a fun way that we could make a simple arrangement.

Typically, when I have something like this, obviously... this is not going to work.

>> Right, right, right, right.

>> Right?

We can't do that.

So what we're going to is, we're going to take some of these rocks.

And we'll put them in there at one end.

Okay.

So, now what I can do is... >> Mm-hmm.

>> Right?

>> Nice.

Yeah.

>> And so then you can just lay them across there.

You know, every show, we have a flower cocktail -- right?

-- for "Flower Cocktail Hour."

But what I love is the fact that when a friend comes and if they want to make flowers, I can open a bottle of wine.

>> That sounds good.

>> Right, right, right, right?

♪ Here.

>> Thank you.

>> And, you know, now, look at how fun that is, right?

>> I love it.

>> I mean, it's just a really simple way for us to do it, right?

>> And those kind of pull it all together.

>> The weight of that texture down there is great.

You know that we have a tradition.

>> [ Laughing ] I can't wait.

>> So, I have to tell you this.

I had no idea what you were wearing today.

Okay?

>> Okay.

>> But... >> I love it!

>> ...I have a flower crown for you.

I used gladiolas.

Similar technique to what you did.

>> Right, right.

>> Right?

So I cut them shorter, in pieces, and then I was able to make them into a flower crown.

And in the pilot episode that you are in, we talk about how to make a flower crown, so I used that same technique.

>> I love those.

>> Okay?

So, I got to shape it a little bit.

>> Okay.

>> I think I remember how big your head is.

>> [ Laughs ] It's pretty little.

>> It is pretty little.

It's awesome!

>> I love it.

>> Hey, thank you for everything that you have done for me.

>> Oh, thank you.

>> When we decided we were going to make this show, I called you and I said, "We're gonna make a pilot for PBS.

Would you come be on it?"

>> Yes.

>> And you did, and that was wonderful.

>> Yes.

It was fun.

>> And then, when we said, "We got the show.

We need to have some voice-over work at the beginning.

Would you come on the show?"

And you said, "Yes, I would."

>> Yes, yes.

>> And anytime I have a crazy idea and I call you about something, whether it's a Flower Power Challenge or whether it's giving flowers away on the street or -- I've always got crazy ideas to talk to you about.

>> And I love your crazy ideas.

>> That's awesome.

>> I love you, J.

>> I love you, too.

Well, cheers, Kim, to great friends and a lifetime full of flowers.

>> Happiness and health.

♪ >> So, here's another fun way to include gladiolas in your home.

We have a vase, and I've bound this piece of manzanita to it with craft-covered wire.

So, it's bound on the back.

And it hangs over the front of the vase.

Many times, I talk about structure and how we can create a structure inside a vase with foliage or sticks or wire that aid us in arranging the flowers.

So, this is another take on that structure, but our structure is above the vase.

And the manzanita branches themselves will hold the flowers in place.

This is a great way to arrange flowers.

It's great for gladiolas but could also work with lilies or other types of flowers, too.

So, let me show you how this structure can aid in arranging your flowers.

♪ I cut my glads with my bypass pruner and then simply place the flowers into the vase through the structure on top.

♪ I want to make sure I tip my glads so that they open all the way to the top.

I can do that by hand or I can use my pruners.

♪ Because this arrangement makes such a statement, I want to make a statement with the foliage, too, so I'll use two Monstera leaves on one side.

♪ Now all that's left is to sit back and enjoy the glads.

I've always loved gladiolas, so it's been a treat for me to show off these beautiful blooms in news ways to be arranged and enjoyed.

For "Life in Bloom," I'm J Schwanke.

How's your arrangement coming over there?

>> Good.

Should I do some more?

>> Sure.

I think you should.

>> Okay.

>> So, okay, you know, 'cause I spent some time in Atlanta before I came here... >> Yeah.

>> ...and more is always better.

[ Both laugh ] >> Yeah, no doubt.

>> Right, right, right?

>> Right, right.

>> It's just like, "Oh, we're not done with that.

We need to add some more to that.

That would be great."

>> It's like that in Texas, too.

>> Correct.

Kim, it's beautiful!

>> I decided to stick this in there.

I wasn't -- I was gonna cut it in half.

>> Uh-huh.

>> And then I thought, "No, it's gonna add, like, a little more height and dimension," like this, right?

>> Right.

>> I'm learning, J. I'm telling you.

>> You're so right.

You're so right.

It's perfect.

"J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is filmed in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

>> Visit J's website, ubloom.com, for flower projects and crafts, complete recipes, behind-the-scenes videos, J's blog, flower cocktails, and more.

♪ "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is brought to you by the following... >> That flower feeling.

♪ At home.

♪ At work.

♪ Or anytime.

♪ CalFlowers is a proud sponsor of "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom," where flowers and wellness go hand in hand.

>> We have fresh in all our stores, from soups and steaks and all things flour to all things flowering.

Custom fresh arrangements designed by our in-store florists at Albertsons Companies.

>> With additional support from the following... Dollar Tree.

♪ Closed-caption funding provided by Holland America Flowers.

♪ ♪