PlantSowGrow
How to grow Crocosmia (Lucifer)
Crocosmia × crocosmiiflora 'Lucifer'
Arching sprays of flame-red flowers above sword-shaped leaves in July and August. Bees love them and they make great cut flowers.
At a glance: Sow mid March to mid May.
When to sow, plant and harvest
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing Crocosmia (Lucifer): what it needs
- Light
- Full sun · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Water pots in dry spells while in leaf; keep drier when dormant
- Soil
- Well-drained soil or bulb compost
- Spacing
- 10 cm
- Height
- 1 m
- In pots
- Grows well in containers
- Feeding
- Feed with a high-potash liquid feed as flowers fade
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 5–9
Step by step
- Mid March – mid May · 4 weeks before the last spring frost
Plant Bulbs
Plant 8–10 cm deep and 10 cm apart, pointy end up, in well-drained soil or pots. Water in.
- 21–42 days after “Plant Bulbs” · Early April – late April
Look for Shoots
Green shoots should be showing. Keep pots moist but not wet and watch for slugs on young leaves.
Every year
- MarchDivide Congested Clumps
Every few years in spring, lift and split crowded clumps of corms and replant them.
- JulyIn Flower
Your bulbs should be in flower — a good moment for a journal photo.
- AugustDeadhead and Feed
Snap off faded flower heads (not the leaves) and give a high-potash feed to build up the bulb for next year.
- SeptemberLet the Leaves Die Back
Leave the foliage for at least six weeks after flowering, until it yellows — don't knot or cut it. Then tidy it away.
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