Quote:
Originally Posted by Rachel 101
Thanks, Kay: yes, that is very much the same problem, but she (the blogger) is the only other reference I had found, which is why I thought I'd ask the question here.
Obviously it's not that widespread a problem!
*packages up some of the caterpillars to post off to Jeff*
Crocosmia without flowering spikes, poster "No Name" (hello, whoever you are!) is a different matter: they do come up "blind" some years. I rather think it's to do with the conditions in the previous year - if they didn't get enough food/water/sun etc to build up their corms, then they won't flower much, or at all, the following year.
My ones have flowering spikes all right, but each tiny flower bud has been carefully eaten, leaving the skeleton of the flowering spike behind.
*grumble grumble*
Thanks for the responses, anyway.
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If you could post a link to a photo of the caterpillars, you could bring in other people's opinions. For example, I'm no moth expert, but I do have a copy of the excellent Collins Field Guide to Caterpillars of Britain and Northern Europe, which groups caterpillars by foodplant. It doesn't list crocosmia as a foodplant, but we migt be able to id the caterpillar and its normal foodplant, and hence suss out why it's moved to your crocosmias.
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