{"id":11336,"date":"2019-06-06T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T16:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=11336"},"modified":"2019-05-20T11:06:29","modified_gmt":"2019-05-20T15:06:29","slug":"grow-crocosmias-in-your-summer-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2019\/06\/06\/grow-crocosmias-in-your-summer-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Grow Crocosmias In Your Summer Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Crocosmias\nare bulbous summer blooming flowering perennials that are closely related to\ngladiolas, also called montbretia and sword lilies. They\u2019re actually corms, not\nbulbs, and are indigenous to South Africa (USDA hardiness zones 5b to 9).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crocosmias enjoy lots of sun, soil moisture, and hot temps to produce flowers. Plants prefer nutrient-rich, slightly acidic, moist, well-drained soils. They begin blooming in mid-June and continue over most of the summer into fall. The brightly colored flowers emit a saffron fragrance. In northern gardens (zones 5b – 6), mulch in late fall for winter protection of smaller corms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gladiolus-like dark green foliage may be rippled or pleated. Usually disease and pest free, leaves may become sapped of their green color by mites and thrips in a dry summers; wash off foliage or resort to pesticide spraying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Orange variety<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Many cultivars are available; some grow vigorously and others at a slower rate. Color choices range from vivid reds, oranges, yellows and bi-colors. Flowers are followed by black berries. The fiery red cultivar \u2018Lucifer\u2019<\/strong> is the most popular cultivar with scarlet red beauty. Set many many corms 3-4 inches deep and 8-10 inches apart to fill the space with showy clusters of flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time a bed of crocomias may become overcrowded. Corms should be dug and divided in the fall. Cut the foliage down to the ground in fall or wait until late winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crocosmia blooms are produced on 2-4 feet tall wiry arching stems, depending on variety. Plant shorter compact varieties in either flower beds or in containers. Crocosmias make excellent cut flowers, much in demand by florists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to \u2018Lucifer\u2019, I have listed five other varieties:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Prince\nof Orange\u2019<\/strong> \u2013 2 \u00bd\nto 3 foot tall, red-orange blooms \/ burgundy speckled, gold centers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Mistral<\/strong>\u2019- <\/strong>2 to 2 \u00bd foot tall,\norangey-red flowers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Star\nof the East\u2019<\/strong> – 3\nfoot tall, huge starry wide-open orange flowers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Tobias<\/strong>\u2019 \u2013 3 to 4 feet tall, 2-3 inch\nwide orangey-red blooms<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Walberton Yellow<\/strong>‘ \u2013 compact 2 to 2 \u00bd feet tall; tightly-packed bright yellow flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crocosmias are bulbous summer blooming flowering perennials that are closely related to gladiolas, also called montbretia and sword lilies. They\u2019re actually corms, not bulbs, and are indigenous to South Africa (USDA hardiness zones 5b to 9). Crocosmias enjoy lots of sun, soil moisture, and hot temps to produce flowers. Plants prefer nutrient-rich, slightly acidic, moist, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,772,1218,747,1319,1226,1037,1509,741,645,1324,626,602,774,745,816,853,742,551,625,843,812,729,777,630,706,646,1126,1,113,455,642],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11336"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11336"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11353,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11336\/revisions\/11353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}