Red hot poker is also known as Torch lily. This very unusual plant flowers with long flower spikes. It has long stems with long, slender, sharp egged, greyish green leaves. The flowers are warm orange-red with some yellow-green. Very well suited as a backdrop for other flowers, to grown along a fence or wall or as a cutflower. Height: 82- 122 cm.
Indoor sowing: february - april
Outdoor sowing: half may - half july
Germination: 7 - 25 days
Germination temp.: 18 - 23°C
Sowing depth: ¼ cm
Plant distance: 40 cm
Distance sowing in rows: 40 cm
Plant position: sunny
Days til flowering: 320
Sow indoors from february on in seeding trays with some moist potting soil. Sow shallow and cover the seeds with a thin layer of soil. Red hot poker is a lightgerminator. Cover the trays with a lid and keep the seeds moist and warm. Remove the lid when the seedlings emerge. Transplant the seedlings, when they're about 7 cm in size, to seperate pots. Harden them of to outside conditions for about 14 days, in the beginning of may. Plant them outdoors on a sunny plot after the 15th of may (Ice Saints).
Sow outdoors from half may, when there's no longer any danger of frosts, on a prepared seeding bed. Sow shallow and press the seeds in gently. Cover the with a thin layer of soil. Keep moist and weedfree. Thin the seedlings, when they're large enough to handle, to about 40 cm apart. Replant them in oktober till november on a very sunny plot with some shelter. Protect the plant in winter against frost by mulching them or cover the plants with fallen leaves. These plants can be enhanced, after flowering, by tearing them in half. The teared plants wil flower for the first time in the following year.
