Red Hot Poker Plant Pruning

7/22/2022admin

By Sarahsmaller

Transplanting Red Hot Poker Plants
Deadheading Red Hot Poker Flowers
Red Hot Poker Plant Pruning Instructions
Dwarf Red Hot Poker Plant
Red Hot Poker Flower Care

My red hot poker plant is not thriving I bought it 3 years ago and it made a few flower spikes that year but since then it is not growing. I planted it near where we had removed a cedar tree and it also gets a lot of fir needles from a nearby tree.

Wellington, New Zealand

Shorter than 'Red Hot Popsicle'. Blooms summer through fall. Landscape Value: All summer bloom. Use as a color spot, mass planting, or enjoy as a vertical accent. Finish Time to 4' 4 - 6 weeks: Comments-Grower Notes: The POCO™ Series Kniphofia are day neutral plants and bloom as long as they have some heat and high light. A fine architectural plant with striking vertical blooms, topped by blazing red, orange and yellow tapering flower heads, that really do resemble fiery hot pokers. Kniphofia are tough, long-lived plants, with a long flowering season (spring to late autumn). Family: Asphodelaceae Botanical Name: Kniphofia Common Names: red-hot poker, torch lily. Plant them in front of an evergreen background, or as a stand alone specimen - and be sure they will draw the attention of all onlookers. Never plant your Red Hot Pokers with their crown deeper than 3 in. Remove spent flower spikes to encourage more blooms and protect their crowns in winter in hardiness 6. Anyway, usually, the first one or two I trim the leaves back neatly to the crown (or until I see green), then I lose all patience and trim them like I do liriope (gather all the brown leaves and crew cut them). I did manage to trim back a somewhat 'evergreen' red hot poker once, but it managed to make itself presentable by summer.

Hi, my red hot poker plant has just come to the end of flowering. I have read that I should cut the flower stems down as close to the root as possible but what about the leaves? I have trimmed off most of the dead ones but the green leaves are really long-too long to stand erect so they hang in a messy clump and look very untidy. Can I cut them shorter to tidy up or will this kill them? Thanks

On plant Kniphofia uvaria

29 Aug, 2009

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Answers

From Bluestone Perennials - Dead heading may prolong blooming by removing old flower spikes. To improve appearance, cut back foliage by one half. Leave foliage for winter protection and cut back to 3' in spring. Divide in spring.

Cut the flower stems right down, but only cut off around one-third to one-half of the foliage, then mulch around (but not on top of) the plants.

Thanks for that Wagger and Bernieh, was just going to ask the same question, never sure what to do with kniphofia leaves always seem to look messy this time of year wondered if you should cut them back, so thanks, now where are those secateurs :-)

Related photos

Answers

Cut the flower stems right down, but only cut off around one-third to one-half of the foliage, then mulch around (but not on top of) the plants.

Transplanting Red Hot Poker Plants

Related photos

Deadheading Red Hot Poker Flowers