i failed ... as did many other friends..

and frankly.. i used to visit a lot of gardens ... and cant really recall them anywhere ...

ken

Don't give up yet redsox as mine is a worthwhile member of my zone 5 garden. It has been around for about 3 seasons in clay soil.

But take a look at a2zmom's picture of her Kniphofia 'Alcazar' that she posted just this past week. It is a glorious picture. It inspired me to go out and get this variety; I planted it just last night.

Here is a link that might be useful: amazing Kniphofia

Can't say my experience was much better than OP's. I dug up & tossed mine after it finished blooming the first year. Completely unimpressed with the color & how quickly the blooms faded from the bottom up. Even when the tops were still bright orange, the fading parts looked ugly. I'd rather plant something with more ooomph that stays looking good for more than a couple of days.

I too had 'Alcazar' in a previous garden and loved it -- hard to beat IMO for a somewhat exotic-looking perennial with a brightly-coloured flower, albeit for a relatively short period of time. Some varieties are definitely better than others.

That is very nice. I think I will give it one more year and then ditch it if I get 2 blooms.

Incidentally, what is that dark red in the back of a2zMom's picture? Phlox? I can't quite see it.

redsox wrote: what is that dark red in the back of a2zMom's picture? Phlox?

If you are referring to the picture above then that is *my* Kniphofia from this past spring. a2zmom's plant is much more impressive and it can be found in the link I posted above.

(In any event if I did confuse you the dark red flowers are Sweet William "Heart Attack".)

Ah, sweet william. I was confused about the kniphofia, so thank you.

As Rouge said, I've been loving my Kniphofia. I planted it in 2011 and it's been spectacular this year. Constantly in bloom, almost all of the stems staright up with no staking. A few on the edge did fall over, but that could have been a deer running into it - I see hoofprints all the time in my gardens.

July was miserable here (as it was in most of this country) - temperatures close to or over 100 every day, very humid and no rain. I did water religiously, but this plant never missed a beat.

Now in August, I am getting an inch of rain a week, however the inch tends to fall in the space of 15 minutes - in other words torrential. Again, this plant has not fallen over unlike many others I own.

I find each flower lasts quite a while and by the time I cut down the stalks, the next set is already starting to bloom.

I have a Bressingham Comet kniphofia that was planted in early summer in 2006. It is in my raised gravel garden in full sun. It gets no extra watering, no fertilizing, and the soil is a mix of builder's fill and one third sharp gravel. It is mulched with pebble gravel and larger rock. (My normal garden is heavy dense and often wet clay.)

Growth was slow and steady, with only a few blooms the first three seasons. Year four it had 20 blooms and has continued the past two seasons with two to three dozen blooms. It starts blooming in late August to early September and blooms until a hard frost. It really puts on quite a show.

What I like best about it is that it blooms (and does not bother) all the smaller rock gardeny plants & mini bulbs in the bed which mostly bloom in spring and early summer, then shrink or disappear altogether. Ir gives me a nice totally carefree fall bloomer that I never even think about until it bursts into bloom seemingly overnight.

Thanks for the information. I see that you are all zone 5 or a cooler 6. I am a 6 leaning toward 7 with a sweltering summer.

Does this plant not like heat and humidity?

I planted two dwarf Kniphofia primarily because the plants were listed as deer resistant. Well, like so many other favorites, the deer don't eat the foilage, but nip off the blooms just as they begin to look good. waahh!
I still enjoy their foilage, and low maintenance in a well drained spot.