Plant Crocosmia Lucifer For A Sparkle Of Color In Your Seaside Garden

Crocosmia Lucifer Brightens Up Your Garden With Beautiful Red Flowers

Plant some Crocosmia Lucifer bulbs in your flower borders even in exposed and windy gardens. These wind tolerant perennial flowers are very easy to grow and cope with a wide range of conditions. Montbretias do not require shelter or a lot of pampering ...but they need a little bit of space. Small flower beds can easily be overcrowded by them.

Crocosmia plants flower during July and August and add vibrant color to your garden. They can be planted into large rockeries, flower or mixed shrub beds, banks or slopes. For a great mixture of summer colors plant them together with Kniphofias, Agapanthus, Hardy Geraniums or Rudbeckias.
Montbretias don't need a very rich soil. Any average soil with reasonable drainage will produce great results. They are great seaside plants that will thrive even in the most exposed coastal gardens.

Cultivated Montbretia are available in different colors. You can get yellow, orange or red ones.
Crocosmia 'Ember Glow' is a beautiful dark orange variety. Its growth is a bit more upright than C. Lucifer and it flowers a little bit later. If you have space it is a good idea to grow both varieties to prolong the color in your borders. C. 'Emberglow' will start flowering once C. 'Lucifer' is finished.

How To Grow Crocosmia Bulbs

Soil: any soil with reasonably good drainage
Position: full sun - part shade
Exposure: no shelter from wind needed, severe and long frosts can damage the plants. Cover with mulch in cold areas or lift the bulbs and overwinter them frost free.
Maintenance: The foliage will die away in late autumn. The dead leaves can be removed or used for mulching and protecting the bulbs from frost. Feed with a general purpose organic fertilizer in the spring.
Propagation: mature plants can be split once the foliage has died down. Just lift up the bulbs and replant wherever you want them.
Height and Spread: 3ft x3 ft

A word of caution!

The so-called 'wild' Montbretia (Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora) is very invasive! It should only be introduced to gardens with great care. You will never get rid of them again. Spraying with weedkiller won't kill them successfully and they will regrow. Pulling or digging them up is also not successful because there will always be bulbs that are left in the ground to grow again. So think twice before you dig those pretty flowers up somewhere to plant them in our garden.

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