plant support for crocosmia lucifer

Hi all

This is my first post on here - so forgive me if I am asking a tired old question...

I have a number of orange and red crocosmia in the garden and they are gorgeous and abundant - but they do tend to fall over when heavy or reaching out of corners to get some sunshine (they are planted all round my garden and happy in all corners). I know there are nice metal thingy-majigs out there somewhere to support them and would like pointers please! I really can't justify a tremendous expense as I have many Lucifers in my garden. At present, my hubby is staking the centre of the plant and I wrap garden wire around it as it grows.... but it can look ugly and a little amateur.

I would be grateful for any tips. Thank you    

I know just what you mean.  I have them scattered around the garden in quite large clumps.  Plant one and you get 50! but lovely.  We also have several bamboos so have a plentiful supply of canes and my husband made me little fences about 9 - 12 inches high of horizontal rows of bamboo canes which help to support the flowers.  Hope this helps.

Thank you mollycat16

Can your hubby make me some too?

I will consider a bamboo fence as I think I have lots of canes in the garage.

If you have any of the old wire coat hangers, you can bend these to make your own wire hoops instead of buying the expensive one's, I learnt how to do this on Gardener's World once.

 simply plant amongst other plant growth, of a similar height, to provide natural support.  Another method could be the use of wind debris/small branches amongst the growth , as a natural support of adiffering kind xx

Thank you everyone for your tips, the lucifers are just about 5 inches high now so I am ready to support them. I have quite a few clusters so will try the various tips and will let you know how I got on.

I did also buy the 1/2 moon wire supports from a garden centre too (v expensive for the number I need, so only bought one set). My hubby also thinks we planted the bulbs too high - so I am going to lift and re-bury one cluster deeper.

  Crocosmia only needs to be planted just below the soils surface, it will spread across the ground rapidly, with time, good luck.  This is a beautiful "cottage garden" type plant xx

Steel bars intended for concrete come in different diameters& can be bent by hand (if not too thick)

Available & affordable from Building suppliers !   Will be rusty so use good gloves ,the colour blends well ... Or paint after shaping !  

It's the same stuff thats sold but much cheaper ( cut with a hacksaw as you need it )

If you have shrubs and trees that need pruning, keep the prunings and poke in the ground around the crocosmias to support them.  As they grow they will hide the twigs, works fine here. If necessary you can thread soft string around the twigs, so everything looks natural.  Do be careful though if yu use things like hawthorne, and poke it in upside down, or you could end up with a forest of hawthorne, or any other easily rooting twigs!!   As you pull the dead leaves out in the autumn the twigs will come too, and you can chop and compost the whole lot. 

Lucifer needs to be divided every three years, otherwise you get congestion. This makes the splaying out worse.

I have never experienced flop with my Crocosmia  but then I've been dividing mine greedily for years. It's everywhere in my gardens front and back because it multiplies like crazy and I have  a stupid big garden to fill. But you cant fault the plant really! I love the clumps of bright green foliage in early summer, the little trumpet flowers in beautiful colours and even the knobbly bits that form after it goes to seed. It even thrives in shady spots for me and the die back is a splendid autumn show with natural mulch for the little bulbs until the spring. Gosh, a round of applause for Crocosmia.

Sounds like Gold1locks has good advice

If you are referring to Lucifer, then I agree, Wintersong. A lovely plant for my hot border. 

I also have Dusky Maiden, which has lovely bronze leaves, and George Davison, which is a golden amber colour. They are lovely to, but not as big and handsome as Lucifer. Christopher Lloyd had a variety called 'Late Lucifer' that flowers three weeks after Lucifer, thus extending its season if you plant both. It was a seedling from Lucifer. They didn't have any for sale when I visited Great Dixter. I must have a look and see if they sell it maill order. 

I'll check this out. I was tempted last year to buy a yellow version at B&Q (my local nursery for the time being as my husband is unable to drive).

At the moment I have the common-garden unnamed orange type, which I dug up from my mother's garden ten years ago and didn't realise there was such a difference in height/habit as well as flower colour. I must say, Lucifer sounds handsome!

This isn't maybe the right thread to bring this up but can anyone tell me how long it might take for divided crocosmia sections to grow to flowering stage?  I took over this garden 3 years ago and had never gardened.  I don't know what type the crocosmia is but it was planted many many years ago before the lovely tree in next door's garden grew to a fair size - so the crocosmia is now in dappled shade.  2010 it had only three stems with flowers which died before opening.  Picture taken at the time show it covered in bugs of some kind.   As a beginner, I held off trying to divide until this February.  Planted 5 sections which have come up in sunny spot and now range from 3" to 7" shoots..  I'm wondering if it will be years and years before they gain maturity to flower and if I ought to feed them with anything specific in the meantime. 

I think you should see flowers now that you have divided them. I'm not sure the time to maturity between tiny new bulb and flowering, probably about two years (guessing) since they are very very vigorous. Treat them mean too, so long as they don't dry out, I have never fed or pampered mine. Just regular division.  And dappled shade is fine also for my kind. I can't speak for every cultivar, mine is the unnamed common orange kind.

Oh and the bugs are black-fly. I get them too but don't worry, the ladybird larvae soon scoop them all up.

Hello Wintersong.   Thanks for this response..  It's really encouraging to learn from the experiences of others who share their advice, knowledge, ideas and enthusiasm here so generously.   

You should get flowers this summer! all the necessary 'ingredients' are already in the corms 

This video may be useful:

http://video.about.com/gardening/Crocosmia-Care.htm

Gold1locks - good video.  Thanks for directing me there.  I was amazed the separated corms produced healthy shoots so early so will look forward to the summer and see what happens.

Loving this thread. I have a multitude of ideas I am now putting into practice - I will let you all know which was the most effective.         

Thanks all