Plants

This unusual plant is part of the bloodwart family. It has evergreen, grass-like leaves with long stemmed pale yellow, orange or red flower clusters in early summer. Cut off the whole stem after flowering to protect the plant as the flowers drain the plant of nutrients.

It prefers well-draining sandy soil from full sun to half-shade, inside or outside. Soil should be moist and not dry out completely, water from the bottom when the top 1/3 of the soil is dry. Feed with weak diluted fertiliser in spring and once in summer. Propagation is done be seed or splitting the rhizome with a node early spring.

Prone to black spots on the leaves called ‘ink spot’ caused by a fungus that kills the leaf tissue, cut off affected leaves