Kniphofia Green Jade at Digging Dog Nursery |

Kniphofia
‘Green Jade’
at Digging Dog

Torch Lily or Red Hot Poker

“Red Hot Poker” is the local nickname for these bold, handsome natives of Madagascar and tropical South Africa. Brought to England in 1707, they were kept as greenhouse treasures until 1848, when someone had the bright idea of planting them outdoors, and their abiding hardiness was discovered.

The old-fashioned orange and yellow form has survived years of neglect in abandoned gardens here on the coast; the new hybrids and species we offer, in versatile creamy yellows, chartreuses, soft melons and bolder colors, are more suitable to modern schemes, but are just as hardy and reliable. The thick, almost succulent leaf blades are evergreen, and of interest even when the cylindrical flower spikes are absent. Heat and drought tolerant.

Kniphofia ‘Green Jade’

Still esteemed by Beth Chatto who introduced it in 1968, this captivating Kniphofia first originated as a seedling selection in Sir Cedric Morris’s Suffolk garden. Bold long cylinders in icy lime-green shades convey a distinguished sense of composure and are without a doubt the greenest torch lily blooms we offer.

Arising from green buds above broad verdurous straps and stalwart stems, the densely packed, irresistibly colored florets are crowned with a dusky orange tuft and eventually lighten to a creamy chartreuse from the bottom up.

Blooms July–September.