Has anyone ever grown Crocosmia?

~NB~

I've always loved the way it looks, but haven't ever bought any until now. I also don't know of anyone who grows it. Wondering if anyone has any experience with it.

juno

My 'Lucifer' is blooming like mad right now.  I planted it in a half wine barrel container with elephant's ear last spring, and it came up but didn't bloom.  I just left them in the pot outside over winter (we don't freeze).  This year it's covered with blooms.  It's in full sun, and I water once or twice a week.  However, we have hit 80 only a couple of times this year, so the container doesn't dry out as much here as it would elsewhere.  You're in FL, right?  The climate there is so completely different from here, so I'm not sure what special treatment it might need there.

~NB~

Thanks for your reply. I'm in central VA, zone 7. Is that same as SF?

I bought 'George Davidson', it has orangey-yellow blooms all over it (I am highly partial to that color). I'm thinking about pairing it with some Canna 'Wyoming' (already ordered from nursery).

juno

Hm, I don't know why I thought FL.  No, I'm 9b, but that's useless info (the USDA zones are meaningless out west because while it never gets cold here, thus 9b, it also never gets hot).  We're probably closer to FL weather than VA weather.  Or a combo of FL winters and VA summers.

I think they'd look great with cannas.  They need something with nice leaves to fill in around the base.  They shoot up stalks of blooms to around 4 ft., but they look kind of sparse and skinny around the bottom IMO.  My elephant's ears fill in the green nicely.  The canas will probably do that too since they have nice showy leaves.

My best advice is hold out hope even if you don't get blooms for a while   Mine seemed to need a year and a half to settle in.  And if you get blooms the first year, I'll be mad at mine!

~NB~

Thanks!