A resilient glad

I remember Mama used to gather her gladiolus corms in the fall into a bushel basket and overwinter them in the cinder block well house.  I liked the way the brown corms looked, and the dark red glads, which were my favorites, had a darker corm.  They would be replanted in spring, and in summer there would be a row or two along the upper edge of the vegetable garden.  It seems I remember how we would look at the row as we were leaving for church on a Sunday morning to see which colors were blooming. 
Years ago, I got a few glads myself.  It's been so long I don't even remember where I got them, but I probably ordered them from a catalogue such as Henry Field's.  Only a white one still lives, but it survives the winter in the ground and comes back every year even though it is getting shaded out by the Japanese maple and crowded out by honeysuckle, poison ivy, and leriope that the birds "planted."  I remember once, ages ago, a neighborhood kid yanked the glad out of the ground just for meanness.  At the time, I cut the bloom off and put it in a vase; I replanted the corm, and it just kept going.  I'm amazed at how it has managed to survive.  I think there have been some years that it didn't bloom, but it did this year.