Topic: Poorly flowering crocosmia - solutions?

[Garden Manager]

I have a yellow crocosmia called 'Citronella' i have had a couple of years. Except for the first year when i bought it (in flower) it has hardly flowered. i moved it last spring hoping this would help, but it did not. I am sure it is planted at the right depth, so what could be the problem? I also grow 'Lucifer' that flowers freely and an unknown small red one which flowers reasonably too.

I know some bulbs/corms dont flower well if overcrowded and i was wondering if this was the case with crocosmia? Do i need to dig 'citronella' up and split the corms up and replant afresh? Advice please.

[Mrs Ava]

Blooming stuff!  Spreads like crazy - I love it - but just wish it wasn't quite so keen to take over the world!  Mine flowers like the clappers, is very congested and almost proud of the soil.  Do you feed it?  Maybe in the spring it would like a nice tonic of something to encourage flowering.  I don't imagine splitting it would hurt, but have you checked to see if citronella is less keen to flower than the other thugs??

[Garden Manager]

Blooming stuff!  Spreads like crazy - I love it - but just wish it wasn't quite so keen to take over the world!  Mine flowers like the clappers, is very congested and almost proud of the soil.  Do you feed it?  Maybe in the spring it would like a nice tonic of something to encourage flowering.  I don't imagine splitting it would hurt, but have you checked to see if citronella is less keen to flower than the other thugs??

Thugs EJ? Citronella is one of the better behaved crocosmia although i dont find any of the ones i have spread too much anyway, not even lucifer. Shy flowereing type? If it is its a VERY shy flowering variety of crocosmia in that case!

Thanks for the reply

[froglets]

Can't help GC, but I had the same problem this year.  I even have corms that didn't produce even leaves, but are hard & look heatlthy ( I dug them up )

Will hope for some advice from those in the know

[saddad]

Mine, mainly Lucifer were less rampant than usual... I just put it down to the hot dry spell that was July!
 ???

[Garden Manager]

I needed to move some 'lucifer' recently. I usualy dig crocosmia up asnd treat the clump of corms like one plant, diciding ito clumps when nessesary. But after the poot performance of one or two crocosmial clumps this year i decided to sperate the individual plants up and replant them wth more space between them. Still in a group to give a good show next summer, but with more room to grow. Hopefully the plants will flower better once they are reestablished. I intent to do this with the 'citronella' as well as any others in the garden that need lifting.

I do get the impression that like many bulbs and corms, crocosmia too flowere poorly if too overcrowded. The one i split up was certanly a very tightly packed group of corms.

[daisymay]

I split up a crocosmia this year and got no flowers at all! but - think it may have been too dry for it as - with most things in my garden - I did not water them much during summer

[Mr_Crocosmia]

Lots of things can stop crocosmia flowering..........
Could be the soil is too heavy
plants kept too dry
plants not fed
plants need to be split
etc etc

If you have them in heavy soil try taking the plant out and loosening the soil where you are going to plant it with grit or mini bark or sand. Add some fish blood and bone or something high in potash (I use Vitax Q4) and put the plant back in the hole making sure the corms are 4 inches deep.
Water very well in the growing season.

It should flower after doing all this.........

Mark