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Crocosmia or Antholyza
When I rescued this graceful gaudy flower from my parents-in-law's garden at Dyrham forty-odd years ago it was known as Aunt Eliza. It grew on the edge of their pond, so I planted it on the edge of ours, rather forgetting that a pond edge can become the driest place in the garden when the water level goes down.
Now I know that it is South African, is properly called Crocosmia paniculata, and is not supposed to be entirely hardy, I salute its 40-year endurance in the rooty grass and reeds on top of a gravelly bank rarely reached by water. Last year I divided its clumps and replanted them with a smidge of compost in the same place. This year, now that it has started to rain, they are making a scarlet fringe across the view from the house, proving what painters have always known: that a little red in a green scene is the mustard on the beef.
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