South African Invaders

Sickly Orange, as far as the eye can see.

Monbretia/Crocosmia might look pretty in the late Summer, but it is not our friend!

The late Summer often poses a problem to gardeners, because most of our garden and wild flowers have finished and gardens can look very bare.  Then along came Monbritia, which is now known as Crocosmia.

This Orange invader from South Africa has evolved to be so tough, to survive the harsh conditions in its native homeland.

they can survive in just about any conditions.  Being just as much of a nuisance in damp as in dry, although I haven't yet seen it growing in boggy ground.  It loves direct sunlight, but thrives just as well underneath evergreen woods and/or shrubs.  It is shown here spreading unhindered and flowering underneath a conifer plantation on the top of Dartmoor.

I would say that the sea cliffs at Boscastle, Cornwall would be the worsted effected place, I have ever seen, but this pest is a wide spread problem and extremely difficult to eradicate as it has dormant corms, under the ground.

The corms are like mini Gladioli corms, but are stacked one on top of the other, all lie dormant, except the one at the top, which has the leaves sprouting from it.  Making them very difficult to eradicate from either poisoning or digging them up; there is always another bit that's down there that you have missed.  And as far a poisoning goes; any Systemic poison is only going to work, if it can feed poison from the leaves into the corms, but if most of the corms are dormant; the poison is effectively useless.

I have never known Monbretia to spread from seed it's self in this country, it usually relies on ignorant nimby gardeners, lobbing it in hedges.  It spreads its self, with long rhizomes, which arm out in all directions and they always form a dense spreading clump of pestilence. 

Crocosmia, Newer Bigger Monbretia

Newer Bigger Arrivals from Garden centres and a discrete name change

I was taught, that this plant was called Monbretia, was I was a child.  Indeed all the older customers I have ever worked for as a gardener; have called it Monbretia.  But then suddenly it was re-packaged and renamed and marketed as 'Crocosmia', a newer, bigger, faster spreading selection of varieties and species of this terrible plant, arriving in garden centres across the country and probably; the world.

As you can see, from this picture to the side here; this Crocosmia, is far bigger than its smaller relative.  It spreads just as fast and has the same arrangement with its corms, but its corms are bigger and deeper.


This unwelcome clump as spread into my garden from some neighbours, who don't even know what it is.  When I informed them about it, they basically said it looks pretty and nothing else will grow for them.  Where have I heard that one before?
  Surely having a garden, just like having a farm; is a responsibility?

Fly-tipping

This is the most common way that this group of foreign invasive weeds enters many wild environments.

Ignorant yobs, who can't deal with or confine the problem to their own garden, think they have the right to ruin our precious Eco-system, just so that they don't have a problem.

below are two photos of some fly-tipped Monbretia/Crocosmia, which I found in a woodland, only a few days ago.