CROCOSMIA. South Africa. These are cormous plants closely related to Ixia. They produce offsets freely, quickly forming compact, many-stemmed clumps from which narrow fans of flattened, sword shaped leaves rise in early spring. Branched clusters of many deep red to yellow, lily-like blossoms are carried well above the foliage in summer, the show lasting for several weeks. Sun, most soils, moderate to little summer watering. Hardy to 10oF or less.
‘Citronella’ is a hybrid much resembling C. x crocosmiiflora, below. It is a prolific grower, 18-24" tall, with smooth grass-green leaves. The flowers are strongly bicolored, the outer segments scarlet, the inner golden yellow, and a little over 1" across.
x crocosmiiflora. Montbretia. An old favorite with 2-3’ leaves and flower spikes to 4’ tall. The 1½" blossoms in our current selection are flame-orange, shading to red in the throat. It may self-sow in the garden.
‘Emily McKenzie’. A recent introduction, already becoming quite popular here. It multiplies prolifically, sending up many seasonal shoots. The 2’ stems display one sided clusters of dark orange flowers with red markings around a lighter center.
‘George Davidson’. Another recent arrival. It is similar to the last in size and vegetative habit. The flowers are distinguished by their combination of gold background and darker orange markings on the tips of the segments.
‘James Coey’ resembles the last vegetatively. However, it offers vivid scarlet, wide-open blossoms.
‘Lucifer’ is, we are told, an intergeneric hybrid between C. masoniorum and Curtonus paniculatus, coming to this country from Bressingham Gardens in England. It has furry, deeply ribbed leaves and upfacing, fiery red blossoms borne on stems up to 4’ tall.
masoniorum. One of the main parents of many modern hybrids, and a beautiful garden subject in its own right. In this form, it grows erect to about 2’ tall, with several ribbed, fuzzy leaves per shoot. Large deep orange blossoms, opening widely, are presented along one side of each flower stem. Received from Wayne Roderick.
‘Norwich Canary’. I admired an earlier yellow-flowered introduction, ‘Solfaterre’, but found it unusually disease-prone (this might not be an inherent characteristic, but it showed itself on several tries). ‘Norwich Canary’ seems more vigorous and has equally beautiful, golden yellow flowers on 18-24" stems.