The British Gladiolus Society

All about Classification of Gladiolus.

For anyone interested in the Gladiolus, and particularly for those of you interested in attending and competing in Gladiolus classes in shows, you should try and acquaint yourself with the world-wide classification codes. All codes consist of 3 digits, the first of which specifies the diameter of the fully developed bottom floret of the spike, thus:-



1st digit of code Description Width of bottom floret (inches)
1MiniatureLess than 2½"
2Small2½ - 3½"
3Medium3½ - 4½"
4Large4½ - 5½"
5GiantOver 5½"

The second digit denotes colour (i.e. green, yellow, orange etc, 0-9) and the third digit denotes the "strength" or hue of that colour. Second digits may be (0) = Pale, (2) = Light, (4) = Medium, (6) = Deep and (8) = Very Deep. Notice that the third digits are all even numbers: even numbers indicate that the colour is without any conspicuous markings present, whereas by increasing the number by 1 to make it an odd number signifies that conspicuous markings are present. For example, Doris Darling 442 is a large flowered pale Pink bloom without distinctive markings whereas Pink Elegance 443 is a large flowered pale pink with a distinctive mark, in this case a white throat. The table below indicates how the second and third digits in the classification are used.

So to summarize, all you need to do to become reasonably proficient at recognising Gladiolus codes is to learn the floret width codes (1-5, narrowest to widest) denoted by the first digit (see table above), and below, the second digit COLOUR codes (0-9) and the third digit COLOUR STRENGTH code (0-8). Don't forget that if the third code digit is an odd number it means that the floret has distinctive markings.

2nd and 3rd digits of code Colour and Hue      2nd and 3rd digits of code Colour and Hue
Asterisks indicate the inclusion of the following colours:- (Medium)**** * Cream ** Buff *** Orange Scarlet **** Red Scarlet
00White (Pale)      56Red (Deep)
02Green (Pale)      58Black (Red)
04Green (Medium)      60Rose (Pale)
10Yellow (Pale)*      62Rose (Light)
12Yellow (Light)      64Rose (Medium)
14Yellow (Medium)      66Rose (Deep)
16Yellow (Deep)      68Black (Rose)
20Orange (Pale)**      70Lavender (Pale)
22Orange (Light)      72Lavender (Light)
24Orange (Medium)      74Lavender (Medium)
26Orange (Deep)      76Lavender (Deep)
30Salmon (Pale)      78Purple
32Salmon (Light)      82Violet(Pale Blue)
34Salmon (Medium)      84Violet (Medium Blue)
36Salmon (Deep)***      86Violet (Deep Blue)
40Pink (Pale)      90Smokies (Pale Tan)
42Pink (Light)      92Smokies (Light)
44Pink (Medium)      94Smokies (Medium)
46Pink (Deep)      96Smokies (Dark)
50Red (Pale)      98Brown

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