General Description/History

There are over 70 species of pokers, and many more varieties, as they are popular and hardy garden plants. Red Hot Pokers have many drooping tubular flowers making up a flower spike that opens from the bottom up. Spikes are typically red with yellow ends to each tubular flower, or yellow and orange, but they can also be found in lime green or cream. Most spikes have a more intense colour at the top, where the flowers are still in bud, so that they appear yellow at the bottom of a spike and red on top, or cream at the bottom and green at the top. Styles and anthers stick out prominently in open flowers. Stems are thick, long and often curved and do not usually have leaves in cut bunches.

Kniphofia are grown in the field or polyhouses in Victoria, NSW, QLD and Tasmania.

What to look for

• Buy when half to 1/3 of the flowers are open;
• Avoid spikes where all flowers are open.

Flower Care

1. Keep cool at all times.
2. Recut at least 2 cm off each stem and place in water immediately.
3. Always use a preservative as this will help buds to open.
4. Replace vase water with fresh preservative every day.
5. Pokers are very sensitive to ethylene. Keep them away from fruit, car exhausts and cigarette smoke.
6. Store upright as tips bend up if stems are lain flat.

Interesting Facts about this Flower

The genus Kniphofia was named in honour of Johannes Hieronymus Kniphof, 1704-1763, who was a professor of medicine at Erfurt University in Germany.

Botanical Name: Kniphofia species, commonly K. uvaria

Common Names: Poker, Red Hot Pokers, Torch Lily

Stem Length: 30 to 70 cm

Country of Origin: Africa

Available Colours: Green, Orange, Red, Yellow

Season: Autumn,Winter

Availability: March,April,May,June,July,August