Okay, so this is not really the time of year that they should be blooming. Torch lily, Kniphofia uvaria, should bloom in the middle of summer. However, without watering, naturalized plants bloom when the weather prompts them to. Some wait out the warm and dry summer weather to bloom as soon as they get dampened by the first rains. Others bloom in spring, before things get too dry.
Flower stalks can get almost five feet tall, but are more typically about three feet tall. Small tubular flowers are arranged in dense conical trusses on top of these stalks. From the bottom to the top, red flower buds bloom orange, and then fade to yellow, and fold downward against the stalk. Different varieties bloom with more or less of these three colors, and at different times of the year.
The grassy foliage is not much to look at without bloom. By the end of winter, it can look rather grungy. It fluffs back nicely in spring, sort of like overgrown daylily foliage. Overgrown plants, or maybe just a few rhizomes, can be divided anytime. However, they should probably be divided just before the end of winter so that they can enjoy late rain, just before their spring growing season.
I had several of these at my former location. One of my favorites.
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Wow, you are working late!
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. . . or early.
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Thanks we love Knifophia, and a number of our native birds do too as they hunt for nectar, a favourite is Percy’s Pride a pure green flower about a foot and a half tall.
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Ooh, that is an odd one. I just looked it up. I see a few cultivars in catalogues, but I still like the common one best It has such a bright color that can not be improved on. I like the yellowish white one too because I like white, but I do not think that I would plant it in my own garden.
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They are beautiful!
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Yes, and simple and easy to grow too. When I was a kid, there were some on the edge of an orchard where a driveway used to come out to the road. The driveway was long gone, but the torch lily survived, and would probably be there now it the road had not been widened.
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My mum always called them red hot pokers. I remember often seeing them in coastal places in England. I always liked them and had three in my garden. I now only have one and that hasn’t had any flowers for the past two years. They do not grow as tall and strong as in your area but they survive the winters if you are lucky.
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That is funny. That is how I learned them as well. I did not learn the name of torch lily until the last few years from my colleagues in Santa Cruz.
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You know, plants waiting for the right conditions explains several unexpected blooms this time of year. Some things have been much later than usual, while other things were far earlier. Interesting indeed!
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They are smarter than we give them credit for.
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I also know them as red hot pokers and had a long border of them along a drive in our NZ house. The honey eaters loved them. Sadly I cannot grow them here.
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Can not grow them? Those things are tough!
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They do not like our humidity, they just wilt and get sick. They grow well further inland with cooler nights and not so much humidity.
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Another South African export 🙂
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Oh yes, or course!
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