In the present investigation, variability induced by ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS) for fifteen quantitative traits was studied in M1V2 generation of gladiolus varieties Ethyl Cav Cole and White prosperity during the Kharif year 2011-12. A significant shift in mean values in the positive direction was observed for all the 15 quantitative traits studied. Corm weight and corm diameter recorded high phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation at 0.50% EMS treated population in both Ethyl Cav Cole and White Prosperity genotypes. The highest variability for days to spike initiation was at 0.50 % EMS treated recorded in plants of Ethyl Cav Cole and White Prosperity plants. The moderate PCV and GCV values for the characters like days to sprouting, days to first floret to show colour, days to full spike emergence, spike length, rachis length, spike girth and number of florets per spike was observed in all treated populations in both genotypes. Plant height and spike length had moderate variability at 0.50% EMS treated populations of White prosperity. Low PCV and GCV was recorded for characters like, leaf width, inter floret length and floret diameter in all treated populations of Ethyl Cav Cole. High heritability estimates along with moderate genetic advance (GA) and genetic advance over mean (GAM) was found for most of the characters viz., number of leaves per plant  leaf width, days to full spike emergence, days to first floret to show colour, spike length, rachis length, florets per spike, inter floret length and floret diameter in all treated mutant populations.