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However, Mr Armitage said her "very striking" composition of red and orange late summer flowers, which included dahlias, crocosmia and rose hips, left judges "bowled over" with its technical quality.

At the foot of the fountain and stairs, Sophia has planted crocosmia and black-eyed Susans that run across the back of the house and surrounds a backyard hot tub.

By high summer, it is a riot of reds, oranges, yellows and pinks: the intense red of Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ goes off like a firecracker between waves of Leontodon ringens, a sort of aristocratic hawkbit that has golden heads of flowers above deeply toothed, leathery leaves; in the background, the smoke bushes smoulder and path edges are lined with Fuchsia ‘Corallina’, blazing like embers.

The only real devil when it comes to Crocosmia, and the one variety that should be avoided, is the low-growing, orange-flowering Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora.

Crocosmia blooms come in fiery shades of orange, red and yellow.