Plant of the Month : Crocosmia

Montbretia - or Crocosmia which is her botanic name (Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora) -  has a home in South Africa but thrives in our gardens in Germany if she has enough water and receives  protection from strong frosts in winter. Wet sand seems to be her favourite substrate. 

I saw her first years ago out in the wild on the west coast of Ireland where she grows like weed, escaped from garden settings. We were sitting on a sandy wet cold beach in a large bay in the southwest of Ireland. Around us these long green leaves were shooting up everywhere and  even grew down close to saltwater's edge. I gathered a few corms that were floating around in the salty puddles and took them home with me in my sponge bag.  Since then I have bought several other cultivars. 
They come in various colours from red over orange to yellow.  

This is the commonest kind, which goes by the name "Lucifer"  

A nice strong colour until September with an interesting eyecatching erect shape of leaves in combination with purples from Sedums and Eupatorium, next to  the Judas tree Cercis canadensis "Forest Pansy". 

A few years ago during my garden trip through the South of England I found a cultivar with the name "Paul's Yellow": it started flowering last month and keeps going for a month. In this year's heat its flowers have turned out surprisingly resilient. 

"Paul's Yellow"