Crocosmia and Chasmanthe

a book by Peter Goldblatt, John C. Manning, and Gary Dunlop

Illustrations by Auriol Batten

Here at last, these beautiful bulbs are fully described and illustrated. Spring-flowering Chasmanthe is a plant for areas of mild winter, but Crocosmia can endure winter temperatures. They flower from early summer well into fall and provide wonderful displays of warm red and orange when the garden often has little else to offer except annuals.

A descriptive list of more than 400 Crocosmia cultivars concludes the complete horticultural account of the genera. Superb watercolors of the species and many of the more important cultivars are complemented by charming pencil sketches of each species in its native habitat.

Media reviews of this book:

“An excellent book... good for both homeowners and for professionals.”

—John E. Bryan, Gardening Newsletter, September 2004

Publishing details:

Hardcover, 236 pages, 7"x9", 14 color plates, 1 b&w plate, 14 line drawings

An excerpt from this book:

The pollination of Chasmanthe and Crocosmia has not been much studied, and most of the observations here are original. The flowers of all three species of Chasmanthe have the characteristics of other African Iridaceae, and of plants in general, that are pollinated by sunbirds, species of Nectarinia(Goldblatt et al. 1999).

They are orange to red, sometimes with green or yellow markings, and have an elongate tube, relatively wide and more or less tubular in the upper half and slender in the basal half. These flowers produce comparatively large quantities of nectar from septal nectaries, that is, nectar-secreting glands in the radial walls (septa) of the ovary.

About Peter Goldblatt

Peter Goldblatt is the B.A. Krukoff Curator of African Botany at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. Throughout his botanical career he has concentrated his attention on the Iridaceae and has shown particular interest in its African members.

About John Manning

John Manning was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, and has been a research scientist in the Compton Herbarium at the National Botanical Institute, South Africa, since 1989. He works at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in Cape Town, one of the world's great botanical gardens and an important center for research on the African flora.

About Gary Dunlop

Gary Dunlop is a practicing architect. He has an enthusiastic interest in a wide range of plants, with an emphasis on Asiatic, Southern Hemisphere, and woodland plants. He has put together significant collections of many unusual and neglected as well as common genera, ranging from South African sun lovers through antipodean alpines to moisture- and shade-loving plants, mostly from the Northern Hemisphere.