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I bought Gladiolus (sword lily) bulbs from an e-commerce site. But the plants which have grown from the bulbs I received do not seem to be Gladiolus. I would appreciate any help in identifying what these plants actually are. The leaves are long grass-like but smooth and somewhat waxy, and the flowers are white as shown in the pictures. enter image description here enter image description here

joy
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Having difficulty recognising this - it might be one of the Tritonia - there is one called Tritonia gladiolaris with a synonym name of Gladiolus lineatus, which might explain why you haven't got the true Gladioli you expected, but the foliage looks a bit too narrow to definitely be that. Some images here https://keyserver.lucidcentral.org/weeds/data/media/Html/tritonia_gladiolaris.htm. When you ordered, was there a Latin or botanical name for the bulbs?

Bamboo
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  • Thanks for replying, @Bamboo. But the leaves of the Tritonia gladiolaris in your link appears flat, blade-like. However, my plants have nearly cylindrical long leaves, which are also somewhat waxy. Unfortunately, no Latin name was there in the e-commerce page. It was only mentioned as Gladiolus and sword lily. – joy Jun 18 '21 at 16:14
  • Well how odd - I'm not sure where you are, but rain lilies usually bud in August, so I wouldn't expect it to be in flower now in June..... it definitely does look like Zephyranthes though, but I did not consider it because its June, not late summer...my oversight, given I don't know where you are – Bamboo Jun 19 '21 at 01:55
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Found it from a reddit answer. The plants I received are actually white rain lily rather than sword lily which I ordered.

joy
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    That would have been my first guess; native pink ones are somewhat common here . They bloom fast but then fade fast . More a novelty than a flower for a bed. – blacksmith37 Jun 18 '21 at 17:21