Growing Crocosmia: Tips at a Glance
Crocosmia is irresistible to hummingbirds (and bees and butterflies) with slender, arching foliage and delicate yellow, red, or orange falling-star flowers.
- Type Flowering corm
- Lifespan Perennial
- USDA Zones 5-9
- Light Full sun
- Water Drought tolerant
- When to Plant After last frost
- Design Tip Clumps of 12-24
- Peak Season Summer
- Companions Grasses, dusty miller
Croscosmia: A Field Guide
Crocosmia is a hummingbird magnet (also irresistible to bees and butterflies) with slender, arching foliage and delicate little yellow, red, or orange flowers growing like falling stars along a stem.
Like its larger cousin the gladiolus, Montbretia grows from a bulb-like underground stem called a corm, a storage organ that holds food for roots as well as the leaves and flowers which appear above ground. Plant it in clumps in full sun (or partial shade in the afternoon in very hot climates). The best known cultivar, ‘Lucifer’, has brilliant red flowers and will grow as high a three feet. Orange varieties of Crocosmia, with dramatic coloration, include ‘Emily McKenzie’ and Crocosmia x cocosmiflora, the orange version of ‘Lucifer’.
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