Gladiolus hybridus Hort., an important bulbous ornamental
plant, ranks highly in the cut flower trade due to its magnificent
and colourful spikes that have a long vase life. It is also grown
in gardens as an ornamental. Many new hybrids with novel floral
architecture and colour combinations are being developed through
extensive breeding programmes. The new cultivars are normally
propagated through corms/cormels, which can be produced in
limited numbers causing inevitable delays in reaching commercial
growers. Further, repeated cycles of vegetative propagation
in the field cause decline in the performance of cultivars. Therefore,
commercially important cultivars have limited lifespan, which
can be extended by maintaining disease-free propagules in culture.
The use of tissue culture technology can help in producing
a large number of cormlets in a relatively shorter time (Kumar
et al., 2011), and healthy propagules can be made available to the
growers.