A SKETCHBOOK ODYSSEY

I always loved the Gladiolus Flower in that we always had them in our yard growing up in Southern California. The Gladiolus is sometimes also called the ‘Sword lily’. The genus occurs in Asia, Mediterranean Europe, South Africa, and tropical Africa. Their stems are generally unbranched, producing 1 to 9 narrow, sword-shaped, longitudinal grooved leaves, enclosed in a sheath. The flower spikes are large, one-sided, are variously colored, pink to reddish or light purple with white, contrasting markings, or white to cream or orange to red.