Many Croscomia multiply so fast, they can crowd themselves out and stop blooming. If your Croscomia aren't blooming, that is what I would suspect. I would suggest that you thin them. There are a few slow crowders out there. C. 'Jenny Bloom' is one of the best.

Sometimes light levels can be a problem. They do well under trees but only the ones at the edges , where there's more light, actually flower.

The other problem that comes to mind is - they're too well-fed. For example - in many places here it's a weed. Along river banks, in silt, and with leaf litter from willows, they grow like grass with few flowers. Vegetative reproduction works too well.

However, floods shift some bulbs out onto the shingle. They don't proliferate to the same degree - and they do flower, with strong colour. Well-drained. Full sun. Low nutrients. Reliable water at the roots. Perfect drainage.

spazzycat 1: did you have your tongue firmly in your cheek when you mentioned 'thinning'? Be prepared to dig down many inches to remove the multiple old corms that form like a string of beads. And the long, pointy runners that gleefully go through other bulbs on the way to Crocosmia bliss. Totally agree with you, however. They need thinning before they sneak through the garden.

vetivert8,

I've found that I can effectively "thin" most established clumps by pulling out individual plants rather than digging up the entire clump and replanting. This is best done in the fall, but if you wait too long, the plant will separate from the corm when you tug it.

One of my gardens had such a problem with spreading Crocosmia that I had to dig the whole area and pass the soil through 1/2 inch hardware cloth to remove the corms. For the next couple of years I dug up the individual plants as quickly as they appeared. When they get into a low ground cover they can be a real nuisance. Al

Anyone has Crocosmia 'Jenny Bloom' corms for postage? Thanks!