{"id":293,"date":"2012-02-27T05:11:49","date_gmt":"2012-02-27T13:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=293"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:32:33","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:32:33","slug":"kniphofia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/kniphofia\/","title":{"rendered":"Kniphofia"},"content":{"rendered":"

KNIPHOFIA
\n<\/font><\/font><\/strong>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Every year <\/strong>the color gurus at Pantone, Inc. do all kinds of secret research to come up with the “Color of the Year,”\u009d which then inspires a multitude of merchandising initiatives. \u00a0Since I always aspire to be fashion forward, I make it my business to know the “Color of the Year.”\u009d\u00a0 This year’s color is “Tangerine Tango,”\u009d a bright orange-red.\u00a0 Now I can tango out to the garden and figure out how to incorporate the show-stopping hue in my planting scheme.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You can grab that color with both hands by investing in kniphofia, sometimes known as red hot poker or torch lily, which comes in shades of red, orange and yellow.\u00a0 Kniphofia is taking a turn in the horticultural fashion spotlight right now, so planting a few might make you stylish enough to excite the neighbors.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You may have seen these hot-colored perennials in gardens.\u00a0 Red hot pokers are anywhere from two to four feet tall, with long, slender basal leaves.\u00a0 The “pokers”\u009d are racemes or flower spikes, cone-shaped clusters composed of scores of long, tubular flowers. They appear in summer at the tops of the leafless stalks.\u00a0 Kniphofia uvaria, from which some current varieties are descended, has bright red flowers that tend to yellow with age.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Before kniphofia was kniphofia, it was known botanically as “tritoma,”\u009d and it was in vogue just after World War II.\u00a0 My 1947 Wayside Gardens Catalog lists eight different varieties in an array of traditional colors, including four in yellow or gold shades and a pure white variety.\u00a0 One plant, billed as the “New Giant Tritoma,”\u009d was described as rising to five or six feet in height with flower spikes twelve to fifteen inches tall.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sometime between then and now, taxonomists agreed to handicap kniphofia, with a difficult botanical name.\u00a0 It honors Johannes Hieronymus Kniphof, an eighteenth century German doctor and botanist, who published an enormous plant compendium called Botanica in Originali.<\/em>\u00a0 Fortunately, modern gardeners are cosmopolitan enough to pronounce “Kniphofia”\u009d or smart enough to call it “red hot poker”\u009d and leave it at that.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the United States a plant genus or species has only “arrived”\u009d if Terra Nova Nurseries, a wholesale nursery and plant breeding operation headquartered in Canby, Oregon, has adopted it.\u00a0 Terra Nova’s owner and resident plant guru, Dan Heims, is the man responsible for putting millions of multicolored heuchera, tiarella and heucherella in American gardens.\u00a0 He has shed new light on coreopsis and sedum and now, like Cecil B. DeMille, is giving kniphofia its close-up.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 These days, new plants are often introduced as part of themed series, which is the case with Terra Nova’s ‘Popsicle’ kniphofias.\u00a0 All have fruity names, bestowed according to flower color.\u00a0 They include, ‘Pineapple Popsicle’, ‘Creamsicle’, ‘Mango Popsicle’, ‘Orange Vanilla Popsicle’, ‘Papaya Popsicle’ and ‘Red Hot Popsicle’.\u00a0 The Popsicle series plants are eighteen inches tall when in flower and fit comfortably in the middle of a mixed border.\u00a0 If you want to get close to Pantone’s “tangerine tango,”\u009d pick ‘Papaya Popsicle’.\u00a0 Terra Nova’s ‘Ember Glow’ and ‘Fire Glow’ are even shorter than the “Popsicle”\u009d types and make good container subjects.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The English firm, Blooms of Bressingham, also carries a line of five red hot pokers. The newest of them, the intriguingly named ‘Elvira’ is a nice clear orange-flowered variety of medium height–about thirty inches tall.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In addition to their fashionable colors, kniphofias have many virtues.\u00a0 Once established, they are perennial and relatively drought tolerant, attractive to both butterflies and hummingbirds.\u00a0 If you can get them away from those pollinators, they also make excellent cut flowers.\u00a0 Most authorities classify the plants as deer resistant, though there are no guarantees when it comes to Mr. Antlers and the indiscriminate plant browsers of his tribe.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Red hot pokers do best when installed in a sunny spot with good drainage.\u00a0 If you have clay soil, like mine, amend it with large amounts of compost before planting.\u00a0 Inserting bright orange into an established planting scheme can be tricky.\u00a0 Kniphofias and similar orangey plants are best paired with other hot colors or with blues and purples, their color wheel opposites.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Come spring, kniphofia should be widely available at garden centers and mass merchandisers.\u00a0 If you are tempted to join the orange rush, but aren’t sure about permanent commitment, buy one of the lighter-colored kniphofias and a packet of Mexican sunflower or tithonia seeds.\u00a0 The kniphofia won’t clash with its neighbors and the Mexican sunflowers are annuals.\u00a0 If you don’t like their orangey hue or need a change when next year’s color of the year is “Brindle Bisque,”\u009d you won’t have to worry.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KNIPHOFIA \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Every year the color gurus at Pantone, Inc. do all kinds of secret research to come up with the “Color of the Year,”\u009d which then inspires a multitude of merchandising initiatives. \u00a0Since I always aspire to be fashion forward, I make it my business to know the “Color of the Year.”\u009d\u00a0 This year’s … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1498,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions\/1498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}