About this cultivar: Kniphofia 'Bees' Lemon' is a sensation in the late summer garden. Emerging from lime green buds, the bright yellow flowers open upwards from the base of the spike over several weeks, so the display is relatively long-lived. This showy perennial attracts bees (but not lemons)... Position: Full sun, partial shade Soil: Almost any soil, grows well in Ballyrobert Flowers: July, August, September Other features: Bees and Butterflies Hardiness: Fully hardy - grows well in Ballyrobert Habit: Clump forming, Columnar or Upright Foliage: Deciduous Height: 60 - 90 cm (2 - 3 ft) Spread: 45 - 75 cm (1.5 - 2.5 ft) Time to full growth: 2 to 5 years Plant type: Herbaceous Perennial Colour: Green, yellow Goes well with: Most things, try grasses About this genus: Kniphofia (nif-of-e-a) was first described in 1794 and is named after Johan Kniphof who was an 18th-century German physician and botanist who finished his magnum opus Botanica in originali in 1733. Apparently his name was pronounce 'Nip' not 'Nif'... Commonly know as Red Hot Poker, it is a genus of South African native perennials that range from 1 ft dwarfs to 7 ft giants. They have a wide range of flowering times from mid-spring through late autumn, depending on the cultivar. The flowers are usually a bright orange and yellow colour; although there are many new cultivars in shades of cream, yellow, red, green, and even flourescent hues. Cream-hot-poker doesn't have the same ring to it though does it? Most Kniphofia are quite easy to grow in bright sun to partial shade and most types of soil. It is not uncommon to find red hot poker plants growing and producing their beautiful flowers in long abandoned gardens or naturalizing in the countryside somewhere. The cultivars we sell are not the cheap seed raised ones - but the tough cultivars that do well in our own garden. We plant them near anything, but I must say I quite like them combined with grasses.
