Kniphofia typhoides
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Kniphofia typhoides• Click here to visit our Main Plant List page for current availability of this plant
• common names: torch lily, red-hot poker
• flowering season: September and October
• height: 4 feet
• Light requirements: full sun, half a day of sun will do
• Soil requirements: well drained soil, but moist
• Water requirements: moister than average
• Growth habit: grows as a clump
• How to propagate: divide in spring or early summer
• Leaf type: strap-like leaves that twist lightly
• Special characteristics: the brownish flowers are not bright although they have a sweet, light scent
• Other points of interests: an unusual plant for the fall garden
This species of kniphofia is unique in several ways - its flowers are lightly fragrant; its tall narrow heads of brownish flowers bring to mind the long tubular, brownish flowerheads of cattails (Typha) as much as they do red-hot pokers; and it is one of the very last of torch lilies to bloom, waiting until September and October. Its leaves are also unique - they are straplike, twisting slightly, resembling the straplike leaves that you find on cattails, and have an arrangement that is called “distichous” (having opposite leaf pairs arranged along the stem in two ranks or planes). It is a plant that needs wetter ground to grow well -- several torch lilies are found in the wild growing on marshy ground. Seneca Hill Perennials reports that it survives well in their Zone 6 garden (located in Oswego, New York) and blooms successfully for them. The height of the flower stems is four feet.