Add fire to your garden with Crocosmia

We all know that red is the favorite colour of our favorite bird in the garden but hummingbirds aren’t the only reason to grow Crocosmia.

Long thought of as a tender summer bulb that must be brought in over the winter, many are realizing that this outstanding bulb can be left in the ground with surprising success. I have made the same mistake and it was only during a visit to a well known local gardener that I learned of its hardiness.

Ralph Burrill tried mulching Crocosmia for the first few years and leaving it out over the winter. “I decided one year after the clump got bigger I would move a few and not do anything to them and they came through the winter all right,” he said. “Then I started spreading them around. The first two or three years that I had them I mulched them, but now I don’t do a thing,” he said.

One of his clumps has close to doubled in size. Burrill finds they self-seed. “I love it. Just last week I got a yellow one. It’s a great hummingbird flower,” he said.

I’ve grown Crocosmia for several years in pots and always carefully shook the dirt off the bulbs to store them in a paper bag in the basement when it grew colder in late October. Now I think I’ll take a few of the smaller bulbs that multiplied over the summer and plant them in the ground.

Crocosmia are cousins to the gladiola and there are several named varieties available in a range of hot colours. They make terrific cut flowers and grow beautifully in pots without requiring staking. Plant them in full sun and fertilize bi-weekly with half strength water-soluble fertilizer. Flowers usually begin appearing in mid-August, coinciding with the lovely white orchid-type blooms of another great summer bulb - Acidenthera.

If you want a brilliant splash of colour in your garden, one that makes people stop in their tracks and ask 'What's that!', plant Crocosmia. It’s available at most garden centres each spring or you can order them through seed catalogues, including Veseys.