UK gardening - crocosmia?

Author

crocosmia?

H Ryder

2006-03-30, 1:21 pm

There are hundreds of "things" growing in my garden. They are like thick
(say 1/2 inch average) single blades of grass with vertical slight ridges on
them. When I pull them up there is a single brown bulb attached to the end
of each. Could they be crocosmia? If so then how have they got here - I have
a few lots on the garden but they have not sprouted yet so can not compare
them to these. If they are not crocosmia any ideas what they could be? TIA,

--
Hayley
(gardening on well drained, alkaline clay in Somerset)

Chris Hogg

2006-03-30, 1:21 pm

On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 16:50:26 GMT, "H Ryder"
<hayley.ryderNOSPAM@tesco.net> wrote:

>There are hundreds of "things" growing in my garden. They are like thick
>(say 1/2 inch average) single blades of grass with vertical slight ridges on
>them. When I pull them up there is a single brown bulb attached to the end
>of each. Could they be crocosmia? If so then how have they got here - I have
>a few lots on the garden but they have not sprouted yet so can not compare
>them to these. If they are not crocosmia any ideas what they could be? TIA,

Sounds like them. The previous owner of my garden obviously liked them
and had them everywhere. I think they're great in hedgerows, but
prefer the selected cultivars in the garden. I got rid of all of them
when we first moved here (5 years ago), but seedlings still keep
appearing.

--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net

Space

2006-03-30, 2:21 pm

we inherited 1000's of crocosima when we bought our current house. your
description sounds just like thse buggers. at first i thought they were
nice but realised they were out of control. the bulbs divide.

it has taken a few years to get rid of the bulbs. 3 years on and today i
was pulling up some of the bulbs.

"H Ryder" <hayley.ryderNOSPAM@tesco.net> wrote in message
news:m%TWf.11883$g76.11102@newsfe2-gui.ntli.net...
> There are hundreds of "things" growing in my garden. They are like thick
> (say 1/2 inch average) single blades of grass with vertical slight ridges
on
> them. When I pull them up there is a single brown bulb attached to the end
> of each. Could they be crocosmia? If so then how have they got here - I
have
> a few lots on the garden but they have not sprouted yet so can not compare
> them to these. If they are not crocosmia any ideas what they could be?
TIA,
>
> --
> Hayley
> (gardening on well drained, alkaline clay in Somerset)
>
>
>

Robert

2006-03-30, 2:21 pm

"H Ryder" <hayley.ryderNOSPAM@tesco.net> wrote in message
news:m%TWf.11883$g76.11102@newsfe2-gui.ntli.net...
: There are hundreds of "things" growing in my garden. They are like thick
: (say 1/2 inch average) single blades of grass with vertical slight ridges
on
: them. When I pull them up there is a single brown bulb attached to the end
: of each. Could they be crocosmia? If so then how have they got here - I
have
: a few lots on the garden but they have not sprouted yet so can not compare
: them to these. If they are not crocosmia any ideas what they could be?
TIA,
:
: --
: Hayley
: (gardening on well drained, alkaline clay in Somerset)
:
:
Sounds like the perishers, pull them out as soon as possible each year and
you'll at least reduce the thugs to something you can admire even if it's
nigh on impossible to get rid of them, they spread everywhere

Mike Lyle

2006-03-30, 2:21 pm

H Ryder wrote:
> There are hundreds of "things" growing in my garden. They are like
> thick (say 1/2 inch average) single blades of grass with vertical
> slight ridges on them. When I pull them up there is a single brown
> bulb attached to the end of each. Could they be crocosmia? If so then
> how have they got here - I have a few lots on the garden but they
> have not sprouted yet so can not compare them to these. If they are
> not crocosmia any ideas what they could be? TIA,

It's always tricky from a description, and I find it worrying that
you've suddenly got hundreds. Any chance of some photos? They could well
be crocosmia; but see below**. You almost always get a corm on the end
when you pull one up. If that's what they are, and your known ones
aren't up yet, you may be lucky enough to find (in a couple of years)
that a few are a slightly different variety, so don't chuck all of them
out yet. A flowering size corm is about an inch across.

They'd probably be seedlings from your older plants: they could have
appeared so soon because the seeds germinated on or near the surface,
where they fell, while the older ones are deeper.

**Keep an eye on them, though: it would be embarassing to discover they
actually _were_ some kind of grass! I can't rule that out from your
description, as some real pain-in-the-seat grasses have a little "tiger
nut"-like thing at the base. But not with an _average_ leaf-width of
half an inch.

--
Mike.

Brian Watson

2006-03-30, 6:21 pm

"H Ryder" <hayley.ryderNOSPAM@tesco.net> wrote in message
news:m%TWf.11883$g76.11102@newsfe2-gui.ntli.net...
> There are hundreds of "things" growing in my garden. They are like thick
> (say 1/2 inch average) single blades of grass with vertical slight ridges
> on
> them. When I pull them up there is a single brown bulb attached to the end
> of each. Could they be crocosmia?

Yes. Very nice in moderation.

--
Brian
"Fight like the Devil, die like a gentleman."

Andy

2006-03-30, 7:21 pm

"Brian Watson" <WACCI_inf@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:4930kdFm3qr9U1@individual.net...
>
> "H Ryder" <hayley.ryderNOSPAM@tesco.net> wrote in message
> news:m%TWf.11883$g76.11102@newsfe2-gui.ntli.net...
>
> Yes. Very nice in moderation.
>
I found that in sufficiently crowded conditions only a small percentage
flowered each year, so had a big thinning out session last year. This is
unlike
Nerines which seem to thrive when they're growing one on top of the other
with no soil to be seen!

Word of advice, do not try and compost the crocosmia bulbs, they are
indestructible and you will end up spreading them every where you put the
compost.

Andy.

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