A brief history of Crocosmia

Dear All,
               Spring is just about here for us in the northern hemisphere
and our pride and joy our Crocosmias are now bursting up through in
preparation for a terrific season ahead. Many of you will be relatively
unfamiliar with the genus; others will regard them as weeds; their history
though, chiefly European and quite interesting reading.
I've copied this from my website just in case some of you haven't read it.

CROCOSMIA A BRIEF HISTORY extracted from:
www.nccpg.freeserve.co.uk

  The genus Crocosmia or, as it is sometimes referred to, Montbretia or
Tritonia, is a small genus of mainly South African iridaceous plants and
contains eight species, although varieties of these do commonly occur in the
wild. The species include mathewsiana, pearsei, aurea, paniculata, pottsii,
masoniorum, fucata and the recently transferred Crocosmia ambongensis from
Madagascar, from the genus Geissorhiza.
  The major single development of the genus occurred in France in 1879.
Victor Lemoine of Nancy crossed C. aurea (Tritonia aurea) with C. pottsii
(Montbretia pottsii) and produced the commonly known interspecific hybrid
Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora (Montbretia crocosmiaeflora). We all know this
form as it is quite common in most hedgerows in Devon and Cornwall, however,
it is even more of a problem in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and
even Hawaii; indeed some people regard it as a weed species and start to
withdraw at the sound of its name. However Lemoine took this first cross and
tamed it in the next thirty years. Up to 1908 he had produced a further 55
hybrids of it, some of vast improvement and some of very similar form.
  It was Lemoine who led the way in Crocosmia breeding, great advances being
made after 1886 with the introduction of C. aurea 'Imperialis' into
Lemoine's crocosmiiflora strain. C. aurea 'Imperialis' was named by Victor
Lemoine but was bred by another eminent European plantsman, Max Leitchlin of
Baden-Baden, Germany. 'Imperialis' was a result of crossing C. aurea with
itself, and most possibly a polyploid seedling. Cytological examination of
large flowered strains should reveal if our hypothesis is correct.
Chromosome counts should take place next year at Kew and this will
scientifically prove what our research tells us; that all the large flowered
forms originally shared one common parent. Further study by ourselves will
determine the various numbers of triploids and tetraploids that have been
produced which will help in furthering hybrid development of the genus.
Lemoine's work was also noticed by other eminent European breeders such as
Wilhelm Pfitzer, Lille, Welker and Gerbeaux. All started raising Montbretia,
but thankfully for us, they never produced as many as Lemoine.
  Hybridisation started in Britain as early as 1895 with the interest of
George Davison, head gardener for Col. Petre at Westwick Hall, Norfolk. His
first hybrid called 'George Davison' RHS Award of Merit 1902 was of Lemoine
parentage but Davison was not happy with the Lemoine hybrids for breeding
purposes as he wanted to produce hybrids that were more suitable for growing
in British gardens, and had the quality of hardiness. Davison chose a newly
imported Pfitzer hybrid from Germany called 'Germania' as the pollen donor;
this was a hybrid of Leitchlin's Crocosmia aurea 'Imperialis' and Lemoine's
'Etoile de Feu'. This cross was probably the second most important cross
regarding the development of the genus as a new strain of potentially
polyploid forms was created; but these were hardier because of the 'George
Davison' parentage. Davison produced about eleven hybrids from 1895-1912,
including the popular hybrids of 'George Davison', 'Lady Hamilton'and 'Star
of the East.' Davison did not sell plants from a nursery at Westwick he only
bred them; a company called Wallace and Co., who were nursery and landscape
specialists actually commissioned Davison's breeding and propagated and
distributed his material. Sadly, like a great many other hybrids the
majority have been lost to cultivation. George Davison gave up Montbretias
for apples in 1908. Fortunately stocks of Montbretias were donated to Sydney
Morris, for further development. It was this donation that gave rise to the
largest, brightest and most popular strain of Montbretia ever created, the
Earlham Giant Montbretias.
  No-one knows what attracted Sydney Morris to Montbretias, wether it was
his head gardener George Henley or the popularity of George Davison's
hybrids; one think is sure though the story of the Earlham Strain as they
are known really puts the icing on the cake with regards the story of the
development of the genus. The early breeding work was done in the grounds of
Wretham Hall, Norfolk; Wretham Hall having burnt down in 1900. Documentation
is very limited regarding this early work but we know that the first hybrid
was developed in 1909 and was named after its breeder 'George Henley', and
was awarded a RHS Award of Merit later that year. In 1912 or 1913 Sydney
Morris must have either bought or leased Earlham Hall, Norwich, from the
Guerney family as we know that Wallace and Co. were commissioned to design
and landscape the grounds of Earlham Hall. J.E.Fitt was chosen by Wallace
and Co. to supervise the work.
  According to the Fitt family, Morris was so pleased with the work of this
young horticulturalist that he was asked to stay on as an assistant for
George Henley as his head gardener was reaching retirement. Having
previously worked for Wallace and Co., with their interest in Montbretia;
and having worked at both Riccarton and Broxborough Hall, which
incidentally, were both near the two largest commercial nurseries that dealt
with Montbretia (Michael Cuthbertson's nursery, Isle of Bute who had perhaps
the largest collection in Europe around 1910 and the famous Forbes of
Hawick), then it would seem that he must also have known or have seen many
forms of Montbretia in his previous experiences, which made him an ideal
candidate for the work in hand.

  J.E.Fitt finally took over from George Henley in 1916/17 and became
Morris's head gardener at Earlham Hall, where he worked until Morris's death
in 1924. Earlham Hall was then sold to Norwich Municipal Council and until
recently was used by their Parks Department, it is now part of the
University of East Anglia. Before its sale J.E.Fitt was asked to become the
head gardener for the Honary Mrs. Edwin Montagu of Breccles Hall,
Attleborough; in charge of her garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll. It would
seem that J.E.Fitt took all the Montbretia and new seedlings with him as
between them Beatrice Venetia Montagu and J.E.Fitt carried on breeding and
showing Montbretia. All new hybrids were still called  Earlham hybrids in
memory of Sydney Morris any many new forms were shown and given RHS Awards
of Merit like the ones that were originally raised at Earlham Hall.
Similarly, the naming of their hybrids didn't change much as Earlham Hybrids
as a general rule are either named after their floral attribute or after
V.I.P's or important plantsmen of the time eg. Citronella, Lady Churchill or
E.A.Bowles. These two latter names have to be given a mention for Lady
Churchill (Clementine Churchill) was the cousin of Beatrice Venetia Montagu
and E.A.Bowles painted some of the Earlham Hybrids, namely 'Citronella' and
'Queen Alexandra' that are on display at Cambridge Botanical Gardens, and
'His Majesty'.
  Sir Winston Churchill and Lady Churchill were frequent visitors to
Breccles Hall; indeed like the well known wall he built at Chartwell, he
also built a wall at Breccles. As well as this though J.E.Fitt's assistant
Albert Hill who was in charge of Montbretias was asked to become head
gardener at Chartwell in 1928; and he indeed went on to breed a number of
Montbretia at Chartwell.
  Earlham Hybrids, unlike Davison's hybrids were sold from both Earlham Hall
and Breccles Hall, and because of their size and beauty they became
extremely fashionable and commanded very high prices. For example the hybrid
called 'His Majesty' RHS Award of Merit 1919 was sold by Sydney Morris in
1920 for £2 per corm; once nurseries bought them and bulked them up they
were still relatively expensive items. So expensive that seedlings were
actually raised by nurseries so that they could market these to the general
public at a lesser price; easing the demand but probably hampering the
future conservation of the strain. Indeed, so many 1920s and 30s gardening
books refer to seed as a means of propagation, when we wish they shouldn't
have.
  From 1909 to 1939 over seventy-five Earlham Giant Montbretias were
produced; quite surprisingly hybrids were raised from seed to flower in only
nine months, their selection was indeed very rigourous as only the best
hybrids were commercially released and it would seem that interest and
devotion to the plants was indeed more important to their breeders than any
potential commercial gain; J.E.Fitt's ambition being to produce a pure pink
and a pure white form, sadly he did not succeed, he died in 1970 leaving
others to carry on his work in his memory.
  Before we started researching the genus the Earlham Giant Strain was
regarded as a small number of superfine large flowered Montbretia of great
merit, sometimes having flowers of over five inches across and very well
regarded in their own right. However they represent nearly a quarter of all
the hybrids in the genus and they are all potentially polyploid and only
about ten percent of them survive today for us to enjoy. It is sad to see so
many plants lost to cultivation, fortunately the genus is not as large as
those of other genera such as Penstemon, Gladioli or Narcissus and we are
quite optimistic that with further research, promotion, devotion, and the
support of the general public; that many old hybrids will eventually find
their way back into cultivation and indeed commerce.
  We undertake our research purely for pleasure and regard ourselves as
catalysts for Crocosmia conservation.

Hope you all enjoyed it .

Best Wishes,
                        Dave and Colleen
                        crocosmia@nccpg.freeserve.co.uk
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