On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 11:51:21 +0100, "Des Higgins"
wrote:

Red hot pokers: I have tried buying from the usual garden centres but it is
hard to buy them in flower and to check the flower colour so I wondered if
anyone knew any varieties that are easy to get and that are BIG and have
deep coloured (red or orange) flowers. I always seem to end up with watery
washed out flowers. I was in the west of Ireland yesterday and saw some
colossal specimens in peoples front gardens (almost 2 metre tall flower
spikes) with very vivid orange and yellow flowers. I would like to get one
and do not want to sneak into someones front garden to try to dig out a
lump. If I ask the owner which variety, Irish people hate not knowing the
answer to anything (it is too unhelpful) and I will get a long chat but no
answer. Irish gardeners never know garden varieties; they always got any
given plant from Mrs Byrne up the road or sometimes her sister in Galway.
Des in Dublin

K. Rooperi, K. x Prince Igor, K. Uvaria Nobilis all have large flowers
of orange and yellow as you describe, on stems typically in excess of
5 ft. (well, they do in my garden!). The flower heads of K. Rooperi
are a bit more rounded than the norm (but by no means spherical). The
gardens of St. Michael's Mount in west Cornwall are ablaze with them
in late summer.

Fir Tree Farm Nursery in Cornwall stock some 60 species and varieties,
including the above, and do mail order: www.cornwallgardens.com




--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net