Flowers: Summer

Height: 40 inches

Hardiness Rating: 7 8 9

Germination: Experience Useful

Aftercare: Care Required

Description: One of the loveliest hardy perennials. Once established, the plants multiply to become a strikingly beautiful colony with vividly coloured blooms which are excellent for cutting. Flowers early-mid summer.

Carmines, flame, yellow and pink, all whiskered, veined or mottled in darker colours in lily-like fashion. Less inclined to sprawl and a little earlier than Ligtu Hybrids.

Sowing Instructions: Sow 3 seeds per 7.5cm (3in) pot, 5mm (žin) deep in a good seed compost from mid winter to mid spring. Seal each pot in a polythene bag and leave at 21C (70F) for 3 weeks then place in a refrigerator at 5C (40F) for 3 weeks. After this return to 21C (70F). Germination should start in around 10-14 days.

Growing Instructions: Do not transplant the seedlings but grow on at a lower temperature, gradually acclimatise to outdoor conditions and plant the whole pot without disturbing the roots, 15cm (6in) deep, 30cm (12in) apart.

Aftercare Instructions: Prefers a sunny sheltered site in well drained soil.