Vol. 12, Issue 3 (2023)

Gladiolus, the queen of flowers has revolutionized the world floriculture trade, occupying the important place in the floriculture trade next to rose. The main emphasis is on the development of varieties, having attractive colours, increasing number of well-placed florets, long spike, efficient corm production and longevity of florets. Therefore, for developing elite varieties, it is essential to explore the range of variability present in the crop. For making further improvement in number of florets, there had been consistent efforts on the part of breeders and floriculturists to bring about variation in the cultivated Gladiolus for the characters attributed to number of florets per spike. Greater variability ensures better chances of selecting new improved forms. To evaluate Gladiolus germplasm the present investigation was carried out to analyse the genetic divergence among 22 Gladiolus genotypes. The present experiment was carried out from October 2019 to May 2020 in the Horticulture Farm, department of horticulture, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, MPUAT, Udaipur. The field experiment was carried out in randomised block design (RBD) with twenty- two variety of Gladiolus. The findings indicate that though there is strong inherent association between various characters, the phenotypic expression is lessened under the influence of environment and that genotypes have substantial diversity and variability for most of the characters.