Say Goodbye To Slugs And Snails Using A Pretty Orange-Red Plant They Can't Stand

Snails might be a delicacy in French restaurants, but in gardens, they're annoying pests. Sure, they do some useful things, like processing decaying matter, but you'll more often find them munching on fleshy green leaves. They have sandpaper-like tongues that wreak havoc on your carefully tended plants. The same is true for slugs. Most of the ways to control slugs involve poisonous pellets or hand-picking. If you really don't want to deal with harmful chemicals or a whole bunch of slug and snail carcasses, you can keep these slimy pests at bay with a pretty plant they mostly avoid. Crocosmia 'Lucifer' may sound ominous, but its scarlet-red flowers bring oodles of drama to your yard — and hopefully reduce your snail and slug populations.

Crocosmia 'Lucifer' is a flowering perennial that blooms from June to August each year. Although no plant is 100% land mollusk-proof, crocosmia is one of the plants most resistant slugs and snails thanks to its sword-like leaves that reach up to 4 feet tall. These slimy garden pests, which are most active at night when it's cool and damp, prefer to munch on lush, soft foliage — think leafy vegetables, succulents, fruit, and flowers. You'll spot holes in your leaves the next morning well before you can find the culprit that caused them. Crocosmia has tough leaves, which simply don't make for nice eating. Any snail or slug visitors encountering Crocosmia are very likely to move on quickly in search of something more delicious. If you get its care and location right, this vibrant plant might just be the key to preventing snails from invading your garden.

Crocosmia 'Lucifer' checks boxes that a lot of perennials simply don't: dramatic color, architectural structure, and a built-in defense against one of the gardener's most persistent problems. The texture of its stiff, strappy leaves is something slugs and snails actively avoid. Native to southern Africa, this award-winning hybrid is highly popular for its tropical aesthetic. Once in the ground and thriving, Crocosmia 'Lucifer' will quickly multiply into attractive clumps. Plant it barrier-like in garden bed borders to protect tender plants against land mollusk attacks.

As a bonus, this plant starts life as a corm rather than a bulb, which means there's no exposed crown for pests to target — unlike other slug-attracting plants you might not want to grow in your garden. The one downside is that although slugs and snails will leave this plant alone, rabbits may find it tasty. The pretty, tubular blooms of Crocosmia 'Lucifer' come in colors that will have hummingbirds swarming your garden, as well as butterflies and bees.

The flowering perennial thrives in USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 5 to 9 and needs lots of sunshine. It's a relatively easy-going, drought-tolerant plant that tackles heat like a champ. However, it's important to keep the soil moist during the growing season. Crocosmia 'Lucifer' has some fall interest — when the dramatic flowers finish blooming, they're followed by tiny seedpods. Don't cut the leaves back until the plant wilts to the ground. You want them to soak up as much sun as possible for next year — and act as a barrier against slugs and snails for as long as possible.