Kniphofia Miscellaneous

This is an enormous plant family, with 70 recognised species and several hundreds of garden hybrids. Some of these were bred deliberately, but many more are natural crosses since Kniphofias hybridise readily. Most species originally come from South Africa, and the rest, (apart from one Yemeni and one Madagascan,) are all from mainland Africa. 

Johann Hieronymus Kniphof was a botanist and a physician in Germany in the 18th century. When the first plants were introduced to Europe, they were thought to be aloes, and Herr Kniphof named one of these first arrivals Aloe uvaria, because he thought that the flower head resembled a bunch of grapes. It has since been reclassified as Kniphofia but ‘uvaria’ has stuck.  

Many of the original flower heads are reminiscent of a red-hot poker with red and orange tips ‘cooling’ to yellows near the base but there are now so many more varieties with flowers including those that are yellow, cream or green coloured. Some have teardrop shaped heads while others are elliptical, some short and some longer. With such a vast family, there are myriad variations, but generally the foliage is green and grassy, some with broader leaves and some with thinner, but they are definitely leaves and not fleshy or succulent as in their close cousins, the aloes.  

Unsurprisingly, these African natives thrive in open-textured, dry, free-draining soil in full sun but they are quite resilient if they are sited carefully so as not to rot off during a cold and soggy British winter. The main flowering season is from July until October, but a careful selection can mean that an aficionado could enjoy kniphofia flowers from April to November. The National Collection is held at the Eden Project in Cornwall. 

In passing, Herr Kniphof invented a new method for botanical paintings called Nature Printing which he used for his herbarium, where the actual leaves and flowers of the specimen were coated with ink and pressed onto the paper before this outline was delicately coloured in.