GO ALL-IN WITH
THE rugged resilience of Kniphofias, better known and described as Red Hot Pokers, has always surprised me. As a final-year horticulture student, my project was planting up a cliff-side garden.
I was amazed to discover these Arizona-like plants clinging but flourishing on a ledge overlooking the crashing waves below.
Originating from South Africa and also known as Torch Lilies, these magnificent perennials have a luminescent quality that brightens the garden with their flare-like flower heads. I recently came across them at a rocky outcrop at sunset and they appeared as beacons in the approaching twilight.
For such exotic flowers, they are surprisingly easy to grow and only require low maintenance.
They are robust and long-lasting perennials. Ideal conditions are a moist but free-draining soil, enriched with humus.
While they can tolerate some drought, they do prefer moisture in summer. However, in winter they do not like to sit in wet soil as this can rot them.
A sunny position will make them feel at home and they do well in coastal areas. You can cut back the flowers when they’re finished but leave the foliage to protect the crown over winter – in colder areas you may need to employ some fleece or straw as well.
In spring, clip back rotting foliage and clear debris – sometimes slugs and snails will have made their home here and they can do damage to emerging spring shoots. Apply a fresh mulch. For propagation, you can divide them in spring.
Their dramatic and architectural appearance makes them useful plants in various types of planting schemes.
They are equally at home in a cottage garden or prairie-style planting, as well as putting on a show in contemporary and Mediterranean schemes.
Each flower head is a collection of small tubular flowers – a good source
of pollen for bees – so you can include this plant in a wildlife-friendly plot.
They also look the part in tropical plots. At the Eden project in Cornwall, there is a national collection of them where more than 100 different cultivars are planted on a sunny slope amidst grasses, Chinese windmill palms (Trachycarpus) and other South African natives like Agapanthus and Hesperantha.
Extensive breeding has resulted in a wide variety of cultivars being made available, from tall to small, early to late-flowering and in colours on the red, orange and yellow spectrum.
Choice ones to look out for are ‘Green Jade’ (jade green flowers), ‘Bee’s Lemon’ (fresh lemon yellow flowers), ‘Toffee Nosed’ (orangebrown-tipped cream) and ‘Timothy’ (salmon pink).
Kniphofia rooperi has red fading to yellow rounded flower heads, while ‘Tetbury Torch’ is an orange-yellow variety with two flowering seasons – early June and late summer.
If you’re stuck for space and don’t feel you can manage all that strappy foliage, there are miniature or dwarf forms and these will happily grow in pots on a patio.
‘Papaya Popsicle’ is an orange and yellow variety that only grows to 30cm high and flowers from June to October.