Crocosmia Lucifer deadheading

We moved into this house early in the year, and it's been great watching the garden come to live through the spring/summer.  There are two crocosmia Lucifer plants in one of my flowerbeds, they were beautiful in flower, but now are looking very sad and brown, and I'm wondering exactly how I should  deadhead them.  Thanks. 

I remove the seed heads to allow the goodness to go back into the bulbs and then wait until the foliage dies off, which can then be easily removed. Much the same as you would do with daffs & tulips etc.

Thanks, that's great, it's been a bit bewildering as I know very little about plants, and have inherited a 100ft garden which previously was owned by very keen gardeners, so is well planted, so appreciate you help. 

If the leaves etc have gone all brown & mushy, then just pulling at them easily causes them to 'break' at their base, ie the corm. Compost the dying foliage, leaving it in situe for too long causes hidey holes for slugs & snails IME. J.

jo4eyes - yes that's exactly how they have gone, thank you, I will get out there today and sort them out. 

Dont be afraid of asking on here about anything that you're unsure of before you remove it- unless you absolutely hate it of course.

Mature gardens can have a lot of nice, but not always maintained plants in them, so you could end up accidently disposing of some gems. J.

Thanks J, yes there are a lot of plants but the previous owners lived here 50 years and the garden got a bit neglected in the last few years as the lady was living on her own and finding the garden too much.  We have watched all summer and been amazed at how much has come into flower, but now it's come to whether to prune or not, I'm still finding my feet, as obviously don't want to destry anything by mistake!

Verdun - I must admit the plants are very big and also heavy so tend to eventually lie on the ground, so will read up on how to split them in Spring, thanks. 

Dead Crocosmia heads make good additions to a Christmas arrangement when sprayed with silver or gold.

I havent got round to cutting mine back yet & it is still standing 'proud' despite all the rain. This morning we had had a sharp frost & it did look good!

Sometime soon, not sure when, I need to get in there to sort!

I did move mine last year, but from a now part-shade spot where it wasnt happy, to a south facing, sunny top of well drained slope where it's totally happy. J.

I didnt think crocosmia grew from the same bulb 2 years running, they grow from the new little bulblets that grow underneath or to the side of the original bulb, excuse me if I am wrong, but in view of the fact that the bulb will not take nourishment from the old leaves, I always chop mine off as soon as the flower finishes.

I also plant the new little bulbs around October /November time.

Perhaps someone could put me right on this?

Lyn is right-strictly speaking they are not a bulb but a corm-like gladioli-so the corm does not get bigger as such but rots away to leave the smaller corms to flower the following year

As they increase at quite an alarming rate-I would quite happily cut them off when finished flowering-there are plenty of cormlets left in the soil to grow and flower for next year

When I dug a clump up there was a whitish corm at the bottom of this year's growth and some big reddish brown older ones lower down. Will all these make flowers in the future or are some of them finished?

It is the big reddish ones-if they are firm- that are the newbies-if they are squashy-technical term-then they are what is left of an old corm.

Thanks. I know they're said to be invasive and I have one good expanding clump. All the others varieties I've tried fade away. I didn't want to throw out the good stuff when trying to improve their performance.

I have a quite different experience; I dig them up every two years, take away the underground piles of small corns and replant the bigger ones with a little space in between. The next year it,s a big flower feast. If I leave them, there's not enouph space for the newly formed small corns to develop and they flower poorly.Are there people with the same experiense. Sorry for my mistakes in english, I live in the Netherlands.

I'd love a flower feast. I've lost lots. Lucifer expanded enormously but flowered poorly. Perhaps I should have done as you do but I disposed of it.

Your English is fine.

 Groeten lousje,  I do the same as I find them very invasive because they tend to fill the surrounding soil with a mass of corms which prevents other plants growing nearby.  I left one group untouched for 5 years and got fewer flowers each year.  When I finally dug them up, almost half of the volume of soil in the area was a mass of corms!  If I didn't like the flowers so much, I would consider them a terrible weed!  By the way, your english is very good!

I don't have the Lucifer type but the orange ones, I tend not do anything with them, just remove the dead leaves. I'm sure I read that the leaves provide winter protection for insects but I'm sure slugs/snails will be in their as well