THIS WEEK AT GLEBE COTTAGE
The latest from Carol's beautiful cottage garden… plus her diary for the week!
Crocosmia is ready to unleash its fiery fun with a brilliant blast of colour
Everything has grown so lushly this season and summer seems hurtling towards a green end. I yearn for splashes of hot colour. All around the garden now, splurges of orange, red and yellow assert themselves – enter one plant that’s guaranteed to wake up the summer garden party – the crocosmia!
It wasn’t until late in the 19th century when Crocosmia crocosmiiflora, otherwise known as montbretia, first burst on the scene. The familiar, or perhaps over-familiar, montbretia was introduced as the latest thing from France, from the Lemoine nursery (famed for its lilacs, among others) in the 1880s and was hailed as a wonderful new ornamental plant. It was hugely successful, spreading like wildfire to the extent where it went from being a ‘must-have’ to becoming ‘an unwelcome guest’ in a matter of years. As a garden outcast, C. crocosmiiflora has made its way to cliffs, hedgerows and road verges throughout the British Isles and it’s now illegal to plant or discard it in the wild. In our gardens its colonising habits won its family a bad reputation.
Nonetheless, nursery folk have continued to hybridise crocosmias, though they’ve gone in and out of fashion. Recently they’ve had something of a second coming, fitting in with modern styles of naturalistic planting.
The famous nurseryman Alan Bloom, who launched Blooms of Bressingham in Norfolk, bred several new crocosmias. Perhaps his most famous introduction was ‘Lucifer’, a spectacular and widely grown variety that brings drama to the garden as early as July. As one of its parents he used the huge Curtonus paniculatus, an eye-catching crocosmia relative, to contribute height, broad-ribbed leaves and upward-facing red flowers. The flowers of ‘Lucifer’ are as red as can be, borne on a massive plant. If you want something just as red but on a smaller scale try another Alan Bloom introduction, ‘Spitfire’.
On the other hand, if you like the stature of ‘Lucifer’ but prefer a more subtle colour, ‘Zeal Giant’, with soft orange flowers and a slightly peachy overtone, is an outstanding plant. Bred by Terry Jones, a wonderful gardener who bred some superb plants, including several nerines and the best eucomis, Eucomis comosa ‘Sparkling Burgundy’. He was the only person I’ve ever heard of who had his house built in a way that would enable him to successfully grow Tulipa sprengeri!
I love yellow crocosmias and of them all ‘Citronella’ is the most endearing. It’s dainty, elegant even, with flowers of soft yellow and a touch of lemon in their colouring. It goes we
