Although the region is tiny, it contains some 9,000 plant species with over 6,000 found nowhere else on earth.
Crocosima should be divided every 2 or 3 years, but of course I wait much longer. When I finally get around to digging them up, the corms have formed these unusual vertical chains with the youngest on top and the largest buried deepest in the soil. The roots of the bottom corm are "contractile" and drag the chain deeper into the soil over time.
There can be hundreds of corms under each old plant that form a thick mat that is hard to shovel through. I think each corm can be separated and planted individually, but I don't have the patience (or space) for that many plants so I give the extras away to my friends, which makes me popular. Like any little thing from the nursery these days, they are expensive, but it's hard to think of a flower that gives more pleasure.
I have crocosima envy. I remember pulling them out like weeds when they spread too far in my Seattle garden. I have purchased them here at the most expensive and best stocked nursery in town - yes - one corm and one spindly little shoot at a time. They are shockingly expensive. The poor little thing puts up a brave blossom, but then winter comes and it's done for. No chance to spread into the gorgeous wide clumps you get in the Seattle climate. I have decided it's not worth fighting with things that don't want to grow in Montana. We will admire yours when we visit and appreciate them all the more.
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