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brit5467

Crocosmia 'Red King' - full sun or not??

brit5467
14 years ago

First experience with these. Someone here (an older post) mentioned moving her Lucifer from shade to full sun and got better results. When looking up Red King on retail site, it compared it to Lucifer, only smaller. Point being, since Lucifer is like Red King and it likes full sun, so should Red King, right? Description ALSO said full sun.

However, my pkg. said sun to part shade. I'm confused !!

Planted 20 late spring this year in part shade and only got about 5 or so white sprouts that split into long chive-looking things and they are still green. A good sign, right? Are the rest just slow?

I guess I'm asking 3 things. Are my results typical?

Should I transplant now if full sun is okay? Someone else had said they don't like being disburbed while in their beginning stages.

And how "full" IS full sun? I have a eastern exposure from sunrise to about 2pm and it's HOT sun. A good 4 to 5 months with high 90's and 100% humidity a lot of the time. If it's any help, my oriental and asiatics love it (whereas I read somewhere they don't???) but I don't want to burn crocosmia up if they can't take intense sun.

Thanks,

Bonnie

Comments (3)

  • ontnative
    14 years ago

    Based on how you descibe the site, I think your crocosmia should do well there. They will grow in either full sun or part sun depending on your zone, etc. They are not desert plants, so they appreciate a reasonable amount of water and moisture in the air. Once the foliage has turned yellow, I cut mine back for the winter and mulch them with dry leaves and/or compost. If you do wish to tranplant them, it is probably better to leave it until spring when the new growth starts.

  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    14 years ago

    ALL crocosmia would prefer to be in full sun - they are native to South Africa. Full sun is technically defined as 8 hours (in summer) or without any direct shade. These will tend to lean or stretch towards a sunnier location if planted in much shade and will bloom very sparsely, if at all. 'Red King' is a selection of Crocosmia pottsii and is considered a very vigorous spreader - you may need to dig the clumps periodically to thin and keep the plants in check.

    They are generally recommended to be planted in fall for summer blooms.....I'd suspect those planted in late spring this season just didn't get a chance to establish fully before the bloom season. They should do better next summer :-)

    Like all bulbs/corms, they like very well draining soil. Soils that remain too damp in winter will just cause the corms to rot.

  • brit5467
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Thanks to both of you. Good to know about spreading. I'll plant accordingly. That's been my main problem as a beginner...not leaving room between plants. Not so much the side to side planting (which I considered) but I've put shorter plants too close in front of taller ones and they get crowded out or shaded from the sun.

    Although I should wait for spring to move, if I find the current location is too damp (think it will be), do you think since I put them in so late that they won't have reproduced that much and that I could just take my chances, dig a big circle around the small spot they're in and try to just get up one big deep clump of dirt and plop it in another hole?