Help my Crocosmia Lucifer

amberspy

This is my 2nd year as did garden make over last year 
still learning a lot of things etc
now the snow has melted and weather starting to get better I’m itching to get into garden again soon 
I planted crocosmia lucifer the tall red one last year and did get few flowers last year but now it’s all lying down like brown dead stems does this mean it’s dead or with I cut it back and hope it recovers in spring 

Crocosmia Lucifer

BobTheGardener

You should be able to pull out the old dead leaves/stems easily at this time of the year, otherwise just snip them off at ground level if they show resistance.  Completely new growth will appear soon and will carry this year's flowers.

amberspy

BobTheGardener said:

You should be able to pull out the old dead leaves/stems easily at this time of the year, otherwise just snip them off at ground level if they show resistance.  Completely new growth will appear soon and will carry this year's flowers.

Thanks bob 👍

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fidgetbones

Lucifer is not at all thuggish here. It spreads slightly. Just cut the old stems off low, or give a gentle tug. The old growth comes off easily to allow space for the new. A top dressing of compost mixed with some blood fish and bone will help it.

Lyn

Not thuggish here either,  but then I don’t let it run to seed, I cut the flower stalks of at the ground after flowering, then in the autumn, when the leaves go brown, I give them a tug and get them right out from the base. They grow on a new bulb each year so they don’t need the green to give them nourishment like daffs and tulips. 
Be carful how you pull the old leaves out now as the new growth is probably coming up. 

micearguers

Lyn I assume they do need the green - it doesn't matter whether it goes into a new corm or an existing corm. Anyway, you write that you let the leaves go brown. It seems to me that crocosmias push themselves up each year by developing the new corm. When I dug them out some had ten or more corms. I experimented to see whether old corms would still sprout if I split them up, and they did. So I assume in the right circumstances it can be thuggish, although I find them easy to keep under control.

I could not get lucifer to work in my garden -- the foliage is too heavy and unsightly after flowering. My smaller crocosmias don't have that problem. I've taken Lucifer out and planted them in big pots, so I can wheel them out of sight after flowering.