Like most bulbous plants you can lift them after the foliage has died down. Though it is possible to lift them before then but wait at least till the foliage is starting to change colour that way you won't lose next year's flowers.This will probably happen towards the end of October or in November.

At the base of the corm,(not bulb!), you will find a shrunken corm, this is the corm that has flowered this year & should be pulled off & disposed of. You will also find lots of tiny, & some not so tiny, cormlets. These can be saved for planting in the spring & after a couple of years will give you flowers.

Clean the soil off the corms & let them dry for a week or two before keeping them in a cold, dry & dark frostproof place till you are ready to replant them in the spring.

Mine have never been lifted, mainly due to nowhere to overwinter them. They have got bigger every year, with a couple nearly six feet tall this summer.

When I first started gardening & got my first job I bought bags of Gladioli & planted them in the garden at home. At that time the advice was to plant them on a bed of Silver Sand, to improve drainage, & to lift & store them during the winter. For a few years that is what I did but I no longer remember the results I got or when I stopped doing that.

I don't think I grew any after I went to Spain even though I grew many other bulbs/corms/tubers, etc. However when I returned to the UK 16 years ago I did have a few on our balcony but at that time I'd forgotten what I used to do when I lived at home so no Silver Sand & no winter lifting! I discovered that they would live quite happily undisturbed & flower in the next years.

Then I started helping my friend Gerry from church on his allotments. I saw he had planted several rows of Gladioli along the width of his plot & they have flowered every year I've been working with him (about 8 by now I should think!). They may now need moving as this year has been their worst year ever & the few flowers they produced weren't nearly as many as in the previous years. These corms have spent all these years in the same place without being moved at all & with no Silver Sand either!