Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 21 ISSUE 3
Written by Maria BĂLA, Florin SALA

The present study aimed to analyze and characterize five gladiolus varieties, based on flower quality parameters in relation to some vegetation indices. The studied gladiolus varieties were: 'Plumtart' (Plu), as control variant (Mt), 'Flower Song' (Flo_S), 'Tequendame' (Teq), 'Princess Margaret Rose' (PMR), and 'Praha' (Pra). For the comparative analysis of the five gladiolus varieties, vegetation indices and flower quality parameters were used: vegetation period until flowering (VPuF), plant height (PH), floral stem number (FSN), inflorescences length (IL), flowers number (FN), flowering time (FT), and total vegetation period (TVP). Inflorescences length (IL) recorded values between 30.33 cm for the 'Praha' (Pra) variety and 64.00 cm for the 'Flower Song' (Flo_S) variety. The flowers number (FN) in the inflorescence registered values between 12.50 for the 'Praha' (Pra) variety, and 19.17 for the 'Flower Song' (Flo_S) variety. Flowering time (FT) varied between 24 days for 'Praha' and 'Flower Song' varieties, and 28 days for 'Princess Margaret Rose' and 'Plumtart' varieties. The regression analysis facilitated the obtaining of equations that described the variation of the flowers number (FN) in relation to the flower stem number (FSN), and inflorescence length (IL), respectively the variation of FT in relation to VPuF and FSN, under statistical safety conditions. According to PCA, PC1 explained 90.243% of variance, and PC2 7.3695% of variance. Cluster analysis facilitated the grouping of the studied gladiolus varieties based on similarities in relation to the vegetative indices and floral quality parameters, in conditions of statistical safety (Coph.corr = 0.955).

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