Roger Mercer: Crocosmias grow well in the South

Dear Roger: Could you identify this? It started to bloom in June. Is it wild, or did somebody plant it? Thought you might like a start for yourself. — Frank, Fayetteville.

Dear Frank: The plant sample you mailed to me appears to be Crocosmia masonorum, variety "Orange Pekoe.'' It is also known as montbretia. It’s not native to the Southeast. Most species of crocosmia are native to South Africa.

The flowers come in shades of orange, yellow, rarely pink, and red and are popular in Europe and England. They’re not hardy north of, say, Pennsylvania in the United States. But in the South, they are spectacular performers and deserve to be more widely grown. Their one limitation is that they often grow too well and can spread aggressively. This is true of the selection I grow called "Lucifer.'' I have a devil of a time keeping it out of my daylilies and liriope.

British gardeners have been breeding crocosmias for decades to improve the colors and number and size of blooms.

The one you have definitely is a highly refined hybrid, and probably a named cultivar. I’m pretty sure it is "Orange Pekoe,'' but there are so many hybrids that it could be something similar. 

The first commercial introduction of montbretias to this country, as far as I am aware, was about 35 years ago by the old Wayside Gardens Co. that was then in Mentor, Ohio. The firm then was bought by Park’s Seed Co. and moved to Hodges, South Carolina. The company was bought a few years ago by Jackson & Perkins, primarily a rose company.

Crocosmias are easy-to-grow relatives of irises, crocuses and gladioli. The better forms have branched scapes.

Flowers open one to three at a time on each branch of the scape and last up to a week if not pollinated. Each scape can carry 40 to 80 flowers, meaning the bloom season can be extremely long.

The flowers can be pollinated by bees, or even hummingbirds, which are attracted by the brightly colored, trumpet-shaped flowers.

Clumps multiply quickly and need dividing every three or four years for best bloom.

Plenty of water and a little fertilizer in April are all that’s needed to grow this plant well.

Dear Roger: Moles have destroyed all the centipede in my lawn. They have turned my yard into pure, sterile sand. What should I do? I can’t understand why you like these mountain-making grass destroyers. — A mole-hating caller

Dear Mole Hater: I enjoyed your phone calls. We shared a lot of laughs about moles. This dislike between some people and moles rivals the rage between Democrats and Republicans, it seems.

Fortunately, gardeners are not generally very political. At least we seldom get angry with each other when we disagree.

I have to come down on the side of moles. You ask why? Because moles don’t eat grass. They are strictly carnivores. They eat an all-animal diet, which consists almost entirely of insects, centipedes, millipedes, pill bugs, worms and other small critters.

I especially enjoyed your comment that moles destroyed all the centipede in your lawn and turned your yard into pure, sterile sand. 

Never mind that moles don't eat grass. It was the extensive system of tunnels that did in the grass, you said.

I suggest that you try adding some compost to the sand, give up on centipede and try a selected form of Bermuda seed since you have a sunny lawn.

 I suspect that sting nematodes have infested your soil. You probably will not have success ever again with centipede. There is no treatment that the government will allow for sting nematode.

At least your calls did not go as far as the letter from an Elizabethtown woman who said moles were threatening her house. 

"They're making huge tunnels beside the foundation," she said. 

She said she went to a chain store garden center to get something to kill the moles, but a store worker there told her that moles were protected by law and that it was illegal to kill them.

While at least one rare species of mole is protected by law, that species doesn't live in the Sandhills. The common eastern mole is not protected from mole haters.

Send your questions and comments to Roger at orders@mercergarden.com or call 910-424-4756.  You may message photos and text to that number. Send pest or plant samples to Roger at 6215 Maude St., Fayetteville, N.C. 28306.