Add impact with kniphofia

These early-season pokers will bring drama and impact to your garden

There’s now far more to red-hot pokers if your only experience to date has been over-used varieties such as ‘Atlanta’. Across the spectrum of the 200 or so species and hybrids, kniphofia flower from spring through to late autumn, with many blooming for weeks.

The torch-like flower heads of tubular flowers in rustic red, yellow, orange, apricot and cream tones, often bicoloured as they age, provide a distinctive character not possessed by other plants.

If the smaller varieties are used convincingly in drifts, or rhythmically repeated rather than as single specimens, they’ll always impart drama and impact, looking particularly good in relaxed schemes involving ornamental grasses and summer perennials, such as helenium and salvia. They’re also good for growing in pots.

Kniphofias come from the periodically damp grasslands of Africa, particularly South Africa, producing rosettes of fleshy, three-angled leaves of various thicknesses and lengths over a fleshy-rooted rootstock that gradually produces a cluster of shoots. Some species have narrow, grassy, deciduous leaves, while others are thicker and generally evergreen. While the leaves of some have visual appeal, others are apt to become untidy and best hidden from view by surrounding plants, so you can just enjoy the flowers.

Although kniphofia are easy to grow, with few pest and disease problems many, even the smaller ones, take time to establish and build up the energy to flower consistently, particularly the case if you buy small plug plants rather than larger pot-grown specimens.

In terms of likes and dislikes, they hate hot, droughted positions or constantly damp soils, preferring moist, but well-drained conditions in sun or light shade. Remove spent flower stems once displays are over and tidy away decaying leaves in early spring before new growth starts to neaten their appearance, when they can also be lifted and divided.