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Crocosmia × crocosmiiflora
Also called Autumn Gold, Garden Montbretia
Montbretia is a garden hybrid of Crocosmia aurea and C. pottsii, bred in France in 1880, grown for its orange flowers on tall sword-leaved stems. It is a corm-forming plant best given full sun or part shade and well-drained soil, and it can spread readily once established.
Crocosmia × crocosmiiflora, or montbretia, is a garden hybrid of C. aurea and C. pottsii, first bred in 1880 in France by Victor Lemoine. The basionym of the hybrid is Montbretia crocosmiiflora Lemoine. In 1932 it was reclassified as C. × crocosmiiflora (Lemoine) N.E.Br., but the common name "montbretia" is still often found in horticultural literature, and is commonly used in the British Isles for orange-flowered cultivars that have naturalised, while "crocosmia" is reserved for less aggressive red-flowered cultivars.
In the United States, Crocosmia × crocosmiiflora is considered suitable for planting in hardiness zones 5–9, but in more northerly locations it can be planted in the spring and the corms dug out in the fall. The corms should be planted in a well-drained garden soil in full sun to partial shade. The hybrid will set viable seed that can be grown as soon as ripe, but as a hybrid it will not breed true to colour. In Belfast, Northern Ireland, it is recorded as well-established in a wide range of locations.
There are over 150 named cultivars within C. × crocosmiiflora including:
Swan crocosmia · Zigzag crocosmia · Pott's Montbretia · Montbretias
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Crocosmia × crocosmiiflora by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
