A pyromaniac for Torch Lilies

Sitting on the couch sometime last winter with my trusty perennial catalogue in hand, I gawked over the Pyromania red hot pokers or torch lilies. When they arrived and were sitting in the driveway, I told Mrs. Jan they had such a beautiful texture I would want them even if they never bloomed. That night, looking at the catalogue, I selected Pyromania Backdraft and Pyromania Orange Blaze, two of the six varieties in the series that gives you choices in yellow, orange and red shades.

In my two previous experiences with the red hot poker, they were both used in cottage garden settings, in the Columbus Botanical Garden close to the historic farmhouse and at the Coastal Georgia Botanical Garden, oddly at the Cottage Garden next to the historic old house residence of the USDA Plant Introduction Station.

They were beautiful at both places and bloomed every year. Oddly, I never saw anyone doing anything to them other than maybe pulling a weed or planting a companion. That tells you immediately they must not be too hard to grow.

My two selections that night have proven to give me the most beautiful late spring season in my life and if they curled up and died tomorrow, I would say, “Wow what a ride,” and then do it all over again next year.

But they aren’t going to die. They are recommended for the most part from zones 5b to 9b. As I deadhead spent blooms, I see new bloom stalks developing. Even when not in bloom, the Pyromania Orange Blaze looks regal in my mixed containers, the shocking Aqua Blue ones that Mrs. Jan picked out.

Those of you who might not know, the torch lily or red hot poker is known botanically as Kniphofia and trace their DNA back to Africa. The Pyromania series are Kniphofia hybrids reaching 30- to 36-inches tall with a 30-inch spread.

As a point of reference to their ease of growing, soil drainage is the requisite of paramount importance and they need plenty of sun. Sunlight is my biggest challenge as I am already cutting back salvias to give the red hot pokers additional sunlight.

Consider this: in your landscape you may be growing Ogon Japanese Sweet Flag and using it as a fine textured grass. Perhaps you are growing Evergold Carex a sedge and using it as a fine textured grassy element. You can do the same with the Pyromania series of torch lily or red hot poker whether they are in the landscape or as the thriller in a mixed container.

The torch lily, as the name suggests, is in the lily family and looks like a grass except when it blooms, revealing some of the most beautiful flowers on the planet. These stunning flowers attract an assortment of pollinators including hummingbirds.

As I eluded, the Pyromania Kniphofia hybrids are repeat bloomers. It is a sizzling show in the late spring and early summer, followed by additional blooms throughout the summer. In the landscape I am combining mine with the various colors of the Rockin salvias. Whether Deep Purple, Blue Suede Shoes or Fuchsia the combinations are highly complementary.

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