Plant of the week

TRAFFIC LIGHTS POKER

IF YOU love red-hot pokers, but dislike their messy foliage, here’s one you might enjoy. Kniphofia hirsuta — the traffic lights poker — blooms in late spring with stiff stems and tightly packed flower spikes. The tubular flowers open jade green but gradually shift through amber tones to orange-red. All three colours become visible on each spike as it matures. The traffic lights poker grows 30cm to 40cm tall and stays compact, with short basal leaves. I grow mine in sharpdraining, flinty soil in full sun. It seems to love hard conditions and stays neater than if grown somewhere moist or fertile. Dead leaves are easy to remove at winter’s end. I remove the flower spikes, too, as soon as the traffic lights have gone out.