Kniphofia 'Wayside Flame'
Kniphofia 'Wayside Flame'• Click here to visit our Main Plant List page for current availability of this plant
• common names: torch lily, red-hot poker
• flowering season: late summer into fall
• height: 2 to 2½ feet
• Light requirements: full sun, half a day of sun will do
• Soil requirements: average to rich and well drained
• Water requirments: will survive in a dry landscape although it will grow better and flower more profusely with weekly deep watering during summer
• Growth habit: a slowly widening clump
• How to propagate: divide in spring or early summer
• Leaf type: narrow and moderately long
• Ways to use it such as in a pot or otherwise: grows well with other flowering perennials in the sunny garden; grows well in a large pot on a terrace or deck where it will attract hummingbirds up close to you house
• Special characteristics: its upright, spiky flowers have lots of character and are a focal point among other flowering plants, especially contrasting nicely with mounding and cushion shaped perennials; it doesn't need much care once planted other than regular watering; gardeners in climates colder than USDA Zone 6 should give it winter protection such as covering with a mulch or a large basket turned upside down and weighed down with a large rock on top
• Other points of interests: its flowers produce lots of nectar that attracts both hummingbirds and various songbirds that will cling to the stems to sip the nectar
To quote the 1988 Wayside Gardens catalog, “tremendously valuable as a late flowering subject, 'Wayside Flame' lights up the darkest fall day with its vibrant orange red. Plants have grassy foliage that grows two and a half to three feet high, topped by poker shaped scarlet racemes from September to November. And is winter hardy in Michigan.” It grows lower here, more in the range of two feet to two and a half feet. And it it flowers here only from September into October. USDA Zones 5 - 10.