Crocosmia - Montbretia

These fantastic Crocosmia (Montbretia) will add colour and height to your beds and borders this year, coming alive in mid-summer with an explosion of yellow, orange and red blooms. If you’re creating a fiery border or love hot, vibrant colours, then these are the plants for you! A cottage-garden favourite with dozens of different varieties to choose from, there’s a crocosmia for every garden and every gardener. You can even grow them in pots, so you don’t even need a garden to appreciate their bright, fiery colours. A plant of African heritage, they do prefer a nice sunny spot and appreciate a regular supply of water – although can tolerate periods of drought once established and will naturalise if happy where they are. That said however, in general they will thrive in any conditions moist or dry soil, full sun or shade, shelter or exposed spots requiring almost no maintenance. Ideal for busy gardeners Considering the corms are dull and uninspiring, crocosmia is a remarkable, multi-talented plant – not only do the flowers look amazing, but the upright, sword-shaped leaves add texture and interest to planting schemes as they are very attractive. The sprays of flowers that follow are freesia-like trumpets which make ideal flowers for cutting and can also be left in place where the small seed pods bring autumn interest to the garden. Hardy perennials (to at least -20C!), crocosmia are some of the very easiest plants to grow. Reaching around 60-100cm (2-3ft) tall, they are perfect for the middle and back of borders and are just the sort of plant for novice or time-strapped gardeners who cannot afford to spend lots of time making their gardens look great!