Flame throwers

The trial currently being held at RHS Wisley is testing 100 different crocosmia to see how they perform. Val Bourne reports on its findings to date

- Val Bourne

WITH their sword-shaped foliage and elegant branching heads of flowers in sunshine-rich colours, crocosmias, most of which are found in South Africa, make wonderful garden plants. Surprisingly, given that there are only seven species in the gene pool, there are plenty to choose from. They come in varying heights and their foliage can differ from neatly pleated bright green to soft brown or grey. They begin to flower in July, with the popular bright-red Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ being one of the earliest. The giant lowered honeyed orange ‘Star of the East’ (1910) and ‘Castle Ward Late’ (pre-1985) will often linger into October.

Flower and petal shape vary, differences that have attracted plant breeders ever since the French nurseryman Victor Lemoine (1823–1911) crossed a stream-side species, C. pottsii, with C. aurea, a woodland species in 1879. Their offspring became known as Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora or montbretia. The common name honours a French botanist who accompanied Napoleon when he invaded Egypt between 1798 and 1801. Ernest Coquebert de Montbret (1780–1801) died of the plague in Cairo, at only 21 years, but he is remembered through the flowers. Most early crocosmias are montbretia hybrids and many are, frankly, weedy.