{"id":1527,"date":"2011-07-19T13:11:39","date_gmt":"2011-07-19T17:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=1527"},"modified":"2011-07-19T13:11:39","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T17:11:39","slug":"to-grow-crocosmia-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2011\/07\/19\/to-grow-crocosmia-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"To Grow Crocosmia Or Not?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1531\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/IMG_0771.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1531\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1531\" title=\"IMG_0771\" src=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/IMG_0771-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/IMG_0771-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/IMG_0771.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1531\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#39;Lucifer&#39; Crocosmia at Kingwood Center, Mansfield, Ohio<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This South African native, also called &#8216;montbretia&#8221;,\u00a0thrives in full sun in\u00a0 well-drained average garden soil. A richly composted soil tends to boost foliage size and bloom count, but often weakens bloom stems, requiring some staking. Crocosmia may struggle in a wet soggy wintry soil. Established plants are exceptionally summer heat and drought tolerant.<\/p>\n<p>Brightly colored flowers rise on wiry stems above the sword-like\u00a0leaves in early July in the Southern Appalachian region (USDA zones 6 and 7). The foliage closely resembles gladiolus. Most cultivars are hybrids and vary in flower color, height and plant vigor.<\/p>\n<p>Flower stalks arise from fast-multiplying underground bulbs (they&#8217;re really corms) in red, orange, yellow and mixed colors. The most popular cultivar is \u2018Lucifer\u2019, a Blooms of Bressingham introduction. \u2018Lucifer\u2019 produces vivid red flowers on 4-5 foot arching wiry stems. Crocosmias make\u00a0 excellent cut flowers.<\/p>\n<p>Corms are planted 3 to 4 inches deep in fall or early spring. In northerly zone 5, either plant corms 6 inches deep or lift and store them by late fall. Container-grown plants are also sold\u00a0at most garden shops.<\/p>\n<p>Many low growing forms (not \u2018Lucifer\u2019) tend to start slow their first year,\u00a0but wind up as long-lived perennials. Over the years crocosmia may become a nuisance (perhaps invasive?) as corms\u00a0spread to\u00a0other garden areas. Mites may draw sap (stipple) leaves in a dry summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This South African native, also called &#8216;montbretia&#8221;,\u00a0thrives in full sun in\u00a0 well-drained average garden soil. A richly composted soil tends to boost foliage size and bloom count, but often weakens bloom stems, requiring some staking. Crocosmia may struggle in a wet soggy wintry soil. Established plants are exceptionally summer heat and drought tolerant. Brightly colored [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[741,742,625,202,630,706,646,642],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527"}],"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=1527"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1536,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527\/revisions\/1536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}