Kniphofia uvaria (common names: Red Hot Poker)

ooooh Chris this is absolutely stunning how did you get it to be so perfect? i had a large on of these in my last garden, and it always got pecked at by the birds - never looked like this! and you have really captured it well.

iv a baby HOT POKER PLANT on my kitchen window sill, im waiting 4 spring2plant it outside,Hope mine grows&looks as wonderful as your?

I have to admit my husband took this photo. For some reason the birds here don't go for these plants. I think they are too busy feasting on cherries, redcurrants etc.

What a blast of colour ! Fantastic. :-)

Wonderful photo. Talking of birds and red hot pokers - a couple of years ago we had a mallard nest in the middle of ours. One day we returned home and found the newly hatched brood chasing mum around the garden!

Wonderful plants. I used to love going out year by year and counting the heads on these. More every year - 21 at the last count before we moved. I could have cried when I saw that the new owners had dug them up and thrown them away

Maple, I would have been very upset to say the least. I love these. Mike C

My Hot Poker is growing well now but i dont think it will flower this year:(

This is lovely Chris my Poker is all leaf @ mo but is grown fast now!

Stunning plants I sure hope mine get as big as yours.Hel.xxx.

I bought some of these for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Fingers crossed they will look just as good.

So's mine, Jacque. Think I should have split the clump last year :-(

Sorry, no suggestions on this one, but my kniphofia is also not flowering this year (it has sent up just one flw spike - usually has plenty). I wonder if the weather has something to do with it? Been pretty gloomy here for a while - no really high temperatures for a while and v wet last summer. I wonder?

ALso, watch out for slugs as they do target the flower stems and buds.

The weather here has been mild. Slugs n Snails - possibly. But there isn't even a trace of a "Chewed" stem anywhere in the heart of the plant. The base of the plant(s) is about the size of a dining table. As I said, last year it had about 50 spikes.
I had one fail like this in the last house. I wonder if it doesn't like my (Not so green) fingers?

So odd - mine is much smaller than yours, but still..... Sorry I can't help :-(

Update.
Here we are, 3 weeks since I posted.
I have 26 visible flower stems now, I swear they came out between Tuesday and Wednesday!!!
This is only half the plant, I can see just as many more just starting out in the heart.

They are about 5 weeks behind last year, I thought it was a much greater time delay.

Phew.

Hi Oldshape - I'm glad you posted again, as I felt I'd given you some mis-information! In fact, mirroring what you've said, my Kniphofia too has flowered well since you asked your question. I just posted pictures of it yesterday - you will find them easily if you go to my pictures page. As you will see, after a faultering start, it has done really well! Very odd!!!!

Sid, I looked at your pictures, V nice.

Technical bit: -
Yours is red all over, I have a yellow bottom.
(I'll say that again!)

Your Kniphofia flower is all red, mine have the yellow underside. Is that a soil thing, or a different genre?

Te he - you might like to get some cream for that!

No, the colour is due to the variety - most do have the yellow bottom tho. Mine is K. 'Northern Lights', tho I haven't seen it sold since. I bought it blind, not knowing what colour it would be. Nice surprise :-)

56 blooms and counting!

Sid et al,
as promised, pictures of my poker in bloom. 56 blooms and about 12 more green ones underneath. But, by the time they get out, some of the flowering ones will be dead so I reckon this was the best time to photograph.

Looks great never seen so many on one plant

Thanks Janette, it may have started as one plant but I think it's as old as me! It would easily divide, but why bother?.....it's happy there and I'm happy to leave it there.

I've always wanted one of those. Seems like I say that about all plants
Looks wonderful

It must be very happy Oldshape The most I.ve had on mine is eight ,but its still only little I grew them from seed last year ,

Wow Hope My Red Hot Poker Gets as Big&As Wonderful as yours Oldshape :)

It's definately a hum-dinger, Oldshape! Thanks for posting a pic. :-)

They certainly seem to like something about where they are planted!

Yes Gillian, they do.
I hope they like it next year because there was a wall about 8 feet from them, I had to pull the wall down in March.......and it was a windshield. Mind you, the flower heads are higher than the wall was, and there is plenty of foliage to protect the centre so here's hoping that next July I'll get an equal display.