Crocosmia Exotic Flower Bulbs

Crocosmia are a gorgeous South African plant for your garden. They're also known as montbretia so a lot of times people get confused and they'll ask me "what's the difference". Well, there's not really a difference. Montbretia is the name that they usually use for the orange varieties that are native to South Africa and then they brought those natives to England and this particular variety, the Lucifer crocosmia was hibernised in 1966 in England. So the native stalk's from South Africa, but the actual variety Lucifer was hibernised in England. So we still consider it a South African plant. Although most people in South Africa have never even seen it before. Crocosmia lucifer are the largest crocosmia. They get about three feet tall, whereas the oranges are about two feet tall and the yellows are about one foot tall. So the bulbs for the Lucifer are also the largest crocosmia bulbs. And their like a little Hershey's kiss candy. The bulls eye goes up. When in doubt, go sideways. And I definitely like to put to start three in a triangle about six inches apart, but you can always put more than that as well. So the Lucifer is the tallest. It comes with red with a little bit of a yellow center. And hummingbirds love all the colors of crocosmia. That's why they're always a hit in your garden. The yellow George Davison is the smallest. It's about a foot tall. It was hibernised in England by George Davison so it's a gorgeous crocosmia that's shorter and multiplies quickly as well. It's just really pretty. And this variety is the orange variety called Emily McKenzie and it has a gorgeous burgundy star in the middle that makes it very showy. So it's about two feet tall. So crocosmia are gorgeous South African plants that do very well in almost any conditions. They like full hot sun and good drainage. So when planting them, make sure that you have good drainage and they're not in too deep a shade. But outside of that, they're very drought tolerant. You probably don't even ever have to water them. They'll do really well. In colder climates, they might not winter over, so you might put them in a pot and put the pot in the garage or actually dig the bulbs up and put them in a paper bag. But in the Pacific Northwest we never then, so we just leave them in the ground and they come back for years and years and years and multiply really well. They're just a gorgeous South African plant. The next South African plant that we'll talk about is eucomis.