Crocosmia 'Solfatare'

syn. Montbretia 'Solfatare'.

Quick Jumps

Growing Guide
Rainy Side Notes

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GROWING GUIDE

Hardiness:

Sunset zones: 4-24.
USDA zones: 6-9.
Heat zones: 9-6.
Mature size:

Height: 24-28 inches(60-70 cm).
Flowering period:

July through August.
Flowering attributes:

Sulfur-yellow flowers open from apricot-yellow buds.
Leaf attributes:

Bronze-green, arching, sword-shaped leaves.
Light:

Full sun to light shade.

 

Rainy Side Notes

Crocosmia 'Solfatare' is one of the tidiest clump-forming crocosmias and is set apart further from its clan by it's bronze-green foliage.

This plant has an ongoing misspelling of C. 'Solfaterre since the late 1800s and to the puzzlement of many the misspelling persists to this day. The correct spelling is C. 'Solfatare'. Other misspellings occur such as 'Solfataire, 'Solfatara' and 'Solfaterra'. The correct spelling is an English and Italian translation of the French word solfatare.

The word solfatare, originating from a volcanic area north of Naples, is a term for a volcanic vent that emits sulfurous fumes and best describes the sulfur-yellow flowers. Most flower descriptions I see of this beauty, describe the flower as apricot-yellow, which I believe the buds and fresh-opened flowers sport this hue. The fully open flowers are as its name describes—sulfur-yellow.

The plant won the RHS Award of Garden Merit, 1993.

Photographed in the garden at Mason's Clearing in the Woodlands, Olympia, Washington.

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