Crocosmia looks dead

ellee

I wonder is it dead dead or will it come back next Summer? It did flower, but when I got back from holidays it was brown. My neighbours looks fine, not sure why mine keeled, over though it has been v dry where I am.

Thoughts???

The Continental Op

Its a pig to get rid of it so I really doubt its dead. Even if the drought has got it really bad some bulblets will have survived.

looksee

Is it crocosmia (the big red one) or montbretia (the smaller orange one). Montbretia is impossible to kill, crocosmia nearly as bad. If you want to keep it throw a bucket or two of water on the site, cut back the dead stuff to be tidy and see what happens next year. Very unlikely it will not rally. (no chance it could have got in the way of weedkiller?)

edit, strictly speaking they are all crocosmia, but that is the usual way of differentiating them.

10-10-20

I have crocosmia (tall red one) and I didn't know what it was called until I googled it.

Like many other plants, it didn't do as well this year and currently appears to be fading early where it used to fade somewhat later. My plant's location is a dry spot alright. It needs a good thinning anyway as it tends to over-bunch the bulbs and become barren in the center of the mass anyway. I'll work some compost into it over the Winter too.

looksee

Most of the named montbretias are much more biddable than the wild one (its not native but naturalised and considered an Irish wild flower), and will grow in vigorous but restrained clumps rather than spreading all over the garden.

ellee

It's the big red one. It needed thinning out anyway, in fact I was thinking of moving it as it is/was overwhelming the bed a bit.

I did take out some kerria japonica with a weedkiller this year. I did wrap the clumps in plastic though and sprayed into the cocoon then, so I'd be fairly sure it didn't get on the crocosmia. Used SBK. The Japonica was dead before I left but not the crocosmia...

Maybe it is just fading early. I'll cut it back and hope for the best.

standardg60

It's been a bad year for crocosmia 'lucifer' this year with the drought, seen a few that went brown early, it should recover no problem