Hit parade
Flowers bring such joy. Each has its turn to star in the seasonal spectacular that starts with glistening snowdrops
They’re closely followed by hellebores, with their subtle markings. Then there are spring bulbs and rhododendrons, summer perennials and metrosideros trees. Summer’s abundance continues with cone flowers and anthemis, astilbes, campanulas and agapanthus, then Michaelmas daisies and endless forms of yellow rudbeckia.
Some plants wait in the wings until almost the end of autumn for their time to perform.
These late beauties are among the most exquisite for the flower structure and purity of colour, precious because they’re the last.
Knifophia triagularis is a dwarf, refined species of red hot poker, not at all like its larger, coarser cousins. In late March and April, tubular, coral-orange flowers hang from slender stems on cylindrical heads; 60cm high, they’re held well above the grassy leaves. This plant comes from the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa, where it grows on the banks of streams and in the moist grasslands. I grow mine out in the open in well-drained soil that doesn’t dry out completely. To propagate, it can be divided, but it’s ever so slow to bulk up.
Saxifrages are generally alpines – dwarf plants from challenging conditions in the mountains.
There are mossy saxifrages, little cushions and silvery buns; and encrusted saxifrages, with rosettes edged with lime icing, all of which flower in spring. Fortune’s saxifrage, Saxifraga fortunei, is larger – a woodland plant that flowers in autumn and is worth growing for its leaves alone. It’s deciduous, but during the growing season, the fleshy, glossy leaves are a foliage feature.
One of the two forms I have is ‘Rubrifolia’, the foliage of which is reddish green on top but beetroot on the reverse. Its stems are beetroot too, the contrast enhancing the frisson of the flowers, which in April are like a shower of silver stars. They’re interesting in their detail because the lower two of the five petals are considerably elongated. Grow in full or part shade in good moist soil.
Fortune’s saxifrage will light up a dingy, dark spot but requires some care in its placement.
It’ll rot if the soil is too wet or badly drained; early frost will knock down the flowers. It can easily be divided in early spring. I’ve spread it among the contrasting foliage of ferns, where it makes a lovely green carpet. It was discovered in China and brought into cultivation in the mid-19th century by Robert Fortune; bless him for this and many other plant introductions.
Crocuses generally flower in spring, but a few bloom in autumn, including
Crocus speciosus.
A friend gave me this plant years ago, and it has been quietly multiplying since. Flowering from the summer-dormant corms is sudden and unexpected; even though I know they’re there, I forget until the delicate violet-blue flowers appear on fragile stems 15cm tall. Closer study reveals branched, orange anthers. They come from the Turkey and Iran.
When you read this, I’ll be in the mountains of Iran. I won’t see Crocus
speciosus because it’ll be the northern spring. But I am expecting to see other bulbs in flower, and much else besides.