Crocosmia Norwich Canary - Montbretia

The Crocosmia crocosmiiflora 'Norwich Canary' is a recent variety of Montbretia, of modest stature but endowed with beautiful vigour, whose abundant light green foliage forms very decorative clumps, even outside of flowering. Its graceful flowers, a light yellow with pale orange reverse, very bright, appear from late July to September, carried by beautifully arched flower stalks. Hybrid Crocosmia multiplies and spreads spontaneously year after year, forming magnificent flowered clusters in summer. Relatively hardy and sun-loving, they do not tolerate poorly drained and moist soils in winter. On the other hand, they require moist soil in summer.

The Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora is a perennial herbaceous plant with corms of South African origin, belonging to the family Iridaceae, obtained in France around 1880. It shows many resemblances with the gladiolus. The 'Norwich Canary' variety, recently obtained in the Netherlands, forms in spring a tuff of basal leaves that are supple, well-furnished, and 40 cm (16in) tall, and produces from July onwards a 60 to 70 cm (24 to 28in) tall arched stem, carrying a horizontally branched spike, with many buds of a beautiful light and vibrant orange, which open into flowers about 3 cm (1in) in diameter, in the shape of narrow trumpet with six petals, well opened. The flower tube is yellow-orange, while its petals are a light yellow, more orange on the reverse. The bright green leaves are in the shape of a narrow sword. Their surface is crumpled and strongly veined, and they spread in a fan or dense cluster from the base of the plant. The reserve organ of the crocosmia is a corm, which means an underground pseudo-bulb that looks like a bulb but is formed by a swollen stem surrounded by scales.

Half-bulb and half-stump montbretias are symbols of summer. Easy to grow, vigorous, and not demanding, they are planted in the sun, in groups of 10 corms, in fertile and moist soil. Their vibrant colours, yellow, orange, or red, form very cheerful spots of colour in gardens. They are splendid when combined with annuals (love-in-a-mist, poppies, cosmos, cleomes) or shrubs, and work well in natural compositions mixed with light perennials (asters, gauras, linarias, shrubby salvias) or grasses. When they are happy in the ground, in sunny exposure and well-drained soil, they multiply over the years and become more beautiful each year. They are also excellent plants for your flower bouquets.