Just about every time I step outside these last few days I see another hummingbird on my crocosmia. I’ve never seen them go so crazy for a single plant.

Can you see the hummingbird, right in the middle of the photo?

A closer look:

This clump-forming native of South Africa has everything hummingbirds love: it’s red, it blooms in the dead heat of mid-summer when not much else is around and it’s got flowers with a deep tubular shape that’s ideal for their long beaks and tongues.

I’ve seen some of the birds stick their whole bodies up into the flower to get at all of the nectar.

These easy-care summer stunners are not fussy at all about soil or water, but they like full sun.

The spiky, swordlike foliage emerges in spring and grows to a height of about 3 feet before the arching flower heads begin to open in mid-summer.

Often classified as a summer bulb, crocosmias are actually grown from corms, slightly raised disks with a bud on top. Plant them in the spring.

Some books recommend lifting the corms after a frost and storing them inside for the winter, but I’ve had good luck with just leaving them in the ground.

The most popular crocosmia cultivar, pictured here, is the fire-engine red ‘Lucifer.’ (And yes, that’s a damn Japanese beetle on the end of the bloom, at the far right.)

‘Lucifer’ is also the hardiest and most reliable bloomer for USDA Zones 5 and 6, according to Reader’s Digest’s “Care-Free Plants” (2002).

This hot, hot color needs careful placement in the garden. Try it with yellow day lilies, blue ageratum or echinops, black-eyed Susans or anything white. Keep ‘Lucifer’ away from all shades of pink.

‘Jenny Bloom’ and ‘George Davidson’ crocosmias offer yellow flowers or try ‘Aurora’ for orange flowers or ‘Solfaterre’ for apricot.

Crocosmias have also proven to be completely deer resistant for me.