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laurell_gw

Plant ID - Looks like crocosmia but blooms purple

laurell
11 years ago

This was inherited when we bought the house. It's tangled up with bearded Iris in a full sun location. It bloomed once a few years back but has been largely ignored and not watered since. Root system looks like crocosmia corms. Blooms bright stripper purple, and Iirc the blooms were similar to crocosmia but were covered with ants.

Comments (9)

  • bejoy2
    11 years ago

    Freesia? Just a guess, because I've never grown them. They have purple flowers, a similar inflorescence to crocosmia, strappy leaves, and bulbs that have a netted-looking cover on them. Crocosmia has corms, but on first look, they might appear similar. If there were ants on them, they might have been attracted to aphids?

  • jean001a
    11 years ago

    Bletila, a ground orchid.

  • laurell
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Interesting. They look a little like both. I would assume ground Orchid due to the hardiness, but freesia due to the light and moisture requirements of the ground Orchid.

  • Embothrium
    11 years ago

    Definitely leaves and pseduobulbs of Bletilla in these pictures and not Freesia. When Bletilla blooms the flowers are stereotypic orchid blooms with a labellum etc. and not open-faced like those of Crocosmia and Freesia.

  • bejoy2
    11 years ago

    I agree the leaves look more like Bletilla than Freesia, especially in the second photo. And I completely missed the pseudobulbs in the second photo until I zoomed in. They definitely don't look anything like crocsmia corms, IMO. But an orchid flower is kinda hard to confuse with a crocosmia....

  • Embothrium
    11 years ago

    Flower appearance based on a recollection going back a few years, but maybe it is something else - looking more closely the roots may not be quite right for the orchid. If it blooms again that will settle it. Try it in pots given some shelter in the winter or re-plant against a wall in a warm protected spot. A friend had the "white" form growing vigorously near the west side of his house in Tacoma, with rocks and paving nearby. It bloomed well for him, he called it "that lily" and didn't think it was anything special. Not sure I ever made it clear to him it was a real orchid. He kept tropical orchids in the house, so it seems it could have interested him that the "lily" was actually an orchid.

  • laurell
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I will try to get new photos of it. I've kept it shaded and watered but have not replanted it as I have been unsure as to what specific cultural requirements I should try catering to.

    The flowers may well have been orchid-y. I was a very novice gardener at the time and didn't pay too much attention to it. The blooms seemed so shortlived but once again, I really didn't know what I was looking at or what to compare them to at the time.

  • laurell
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I don't know if these are any better. Looking at the root system it does have those thick roots that my philaenopsis inside have.

  • bejoy2
    11 years ago

    Well, I don't see any of the netted covering that freesia bulbs have, and the thick roots do look like bletilla. I agree that it's bletilla.