Lift and separate!

No, I am not talking about the Wonderbra! I am referring to Crocosmia plants. Today's blip is a horticultural tip.

I love Crocosmia, or Montbretia as some of you may know them as. They have wonderful upright spears of bright green foliage from early spring and depending on the variety, flower in shades or yellow, orange and red by high summer. But mine have given poor results this year which normally means they are congested. My photo shows that this clump has not been divided for 7 years, since there are 7 corms to the "chain".

Each year a new corm grows on top the previous one, pushing it further down into the soil. The only one to produce foliage and a flower however will be the newest one. Over time, unless you have very deep easily dug soil, the new corm will end up almost on the surface of the soil, and very congested with the rest of the clump. It will suffer with drought being so close to the surface, will lack nutrients, and no doubt fail to flower.

Time to dig up the clump, and ONLY put back the newest corms ie the ones with foliage attached. They are very easy to pull off by hand, then throw away all the older ones, as they will not regrow.