Crocosmia Saracen - Montbretia

Crocosmia hybrid 'Saracen' is a remarkably colourful variety of montbretia. The plant offers a beautiful combination of colours in the summer, with bronze-green foliage and bright red-orange flowers touched with golden yellow. Not very tall but relatively hardy and floriferous, this variety is easy to grow in full sun or partial shade in fertile and moist soil. It is a beautiful flower for borders, containers, or bouquets. 'Saracen' will bring an elegant and exotic touch to any setting.  

Crocosmia, or montbretia, is a herbaceous perennial plant native to South Africa, belonging to the Iridaceae family. It bears many similarities to the gladiolus and is cultivated in the same way, except in cooler climates. In the wild, Crocosmia grows in sunny areas with fertile soil that is moist in summer and drier in winter. They tolerate our cold and humid winters in the garden to varying degrees, depending on the species and varieties. The 'Saracen' variety forms a shrub of basal leaves in spring, reaching a height of 60 cm (24in), and produces strong, slightly arched stems, about 75 cm (30in) tall, with a green-purple colour in August-September. Each stem bears a more or less horizontal spike, densely packed with numerous red buds that open into large flowers, approximately 4 cm (2in) in diameter. The flowers are fully open in this variety, composed of 6 reddish-orange petals with yellow bases centred around a brown heart. The leaves are sword-shaped, a beautiful green with a bronze tint. They are crumpled and strongly veined, spreading densely in a fan shape from the base of the plant. The storage organ of Crocosmia is a corm, an underground pseudo-bulb formed by a swollen stem surrounded by scales.

Half bulb, half shrub, montbretias symbolise the splendour of summer better than any other plant, with their abundant and cheerful flowering. Easy to grow, vigorous, but demanding, they should be planted in groups of 10 corms in sunny, fertile, and moist soil. Their vibrant colours create beautiful combinations with annuals (Cosmos, nigella, poppies) and integrate well into natural gardens, mixed with light perennials such as fennel, Baptisia, sage, or catmint. They look stunning when planted with grasses, especially in front of shrubs with colourful foliage.

When they thrive in the ground, in sunny and well-drained locations, they multiply over the years and become more beautiful each year.