David, > >Most people will know that like Alan, the collection holder of Schizostylis, >I am the NCCPG National Collection holder of Crocosmia with Chasmanthe. The >remark Shirley made is very common, (nothing personal Shirley), it reports >correctly to a few varieties of Crocosmia, but the rest of the genus should >not be given a bad name because of the few. > As I said in my original email (which I assume was the first 'nail' <grin>) the other forms other than the basic orange are far better behaved. I grow 'Lucifer' and just love the wonderful red of it, plus I have 'Citronella' which is a wonderful clear yellow (which looks wonderful in flower in the pot beside 'Lucifer' at the moment). I also have 'Solfatore' which has struggled and almost died out for me. All mine are being grown in pots at the moment until I can work out whether they are safe in teh garden. By the sound of it Lyn grows her 'Luficer' in the garden which bodes well for me (Lyn is about 20 minutes from here) and I may just try it at some point, otherwise they'll just stay in the pots and look very nice as they have this year. I have seen pics a year or so ago of some wonderful hybrids (or seed variants... I don't know), some of which had dark halos and peachy shades etc. I would love to try some of them and I must admit that seeing them is the reason I purchased 'Citronella' and 'Solfatore' as I rather loved the different colours. I am still to have 'Solfatore' flower and I have recently heard that it is similar to 'Citronella' which is unfortunate if true. I do not know of many sources here in Australia of many of the different colour variants. If any Aussies on the list have other varieties I would be interested in hearing from them as I would love to get some more colours of these and they will all stay in pots for the time being <grin>. As you said David, it is unfortunate that a genus gets slighted by just a few of it's more thug-like members. I have also started collected Oxalis in the last couple of years and it took me quite a while to accept that some of them WEREN'T thugs given my experiences of them.... now I dearly love some of the varieties like O. palmifrons and O. polyphylla var heptaphylla (to name but 2) as they are just so un-oxalis-like. The old IBS list was my reason for re-evaluating my position on Oxalis and conversations like this one may help people re-evaluate their opinions of the Crocosmias as well. I am glad that this came up as it is another bit to learn!! I for one was interested to hear of some of the different species and varieties. How much bigger are the "large flowered" forms? Cheers. Paul Tyerman Canberra, Australia. USDA equivalent - Zone 8/9 mailto:ptyerman@ozemail.com.au Growing.... Galanthus, Erythroniums, Fritillarias, Cyclamen, Crocus, Cyrtanthus, Liliums, Hellebores, Aroids, Irises plus just about anything else that doesn't move!!!!!