Plant of the week

KNIPHOFIA ‘WREXHAM BUTTERCUP’

IF YOU’RE looking for a big perennial to make a statement from mid-June, this is for you. Shocks of bottle-green leaves develop during early summer. Later, rigid stems emerge carrying tightly clustered, tubular flowers. These are green in bud, opening a rich, warm yellow. Red-hot pokers are a mixed bag. For small gardens, many are coarse things with huge shocks of untidy foliage in garish red, orange and yellow. Wrexham Buttercup has the RHS Award of Garden Merit because it avoids the worst characteristics of this group. Grow in full sun or dappled shade in freedraining, humus-rich soil.