Crocosmia His Majesty was:Re: [pbs] Red Flowered Bulbs--TOW - Crocosmia
Jim McKenney (Thu, 17 Jun 2004 16:41:55 PDT)

David Fenwick wrote:

Dave, I think I led you in the wrong direction here! Instead of having
extra perianth segments, my plants often produced flowers with only four.
Otherwise, I think the stock was true to name; the flowers looked like
those seen in color illustrations in catalogs from the twenties and
thirties of the last century.

I checked the photograph (it was taken in 1986) and it shows a
comparatively large-flowered Crocosmia with big orange-red flowers which
have a smudge of yellow at the base of the tepal. The flowers had the shape
of partially recurved martagon lilies and were carried so that the flowers
faced down and out.

I've often wondered if these deformed flowers were the result of tissue
culture propagation. I have stock of the handsome Crocus vernus Vanguard
acquired at about the same time and the Crocus stock shows a similar
problem: the plants often produce flowers with only four or five perianth
segments.

And now that I've got your attention, perhaps you can tell me: which name
is proper, Crocosmia masonorum or Crocosmia masoniorum? My usual sources
have failed me on this one. I'll get a good laugh if the name has been
changed to something entirely different!

Jim McKenney
jimmckenney@starpower.net
Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where the hummers love the
crocosmias but so unfortunately do the voles.