Red-hot poker
Kniphofia uvaria
A bold, clump-forming South African perennial grown the world over for its dramatic torch-like flower spikes — tight rockets of tubular blooms that open from the top down, glowing from coral-red buds through orange to yellow, held well above a fountain of grassy, arching leaves in summer. Hence its names, "red-hot poker" and "torch lily." Unusually for a South African plant it is quite hardy, surviving to roughly USDA zone 5 where drainage is sharp, but it RESENTS WET WINTER SOIL and rots in heavy, poorly drained ground, so the whole knack to growing it is full sun and free drainage. Its nectar-rich tubular flowers are a magnet for nectar-feeding BIRDS — sunbirds in its native range, hummingbirds in the Americas — and for bees. POWO (Kew) records it as native to the Cape provinces of South Africa; it is grown strictly as an ornamental and is not eaten.
Climate fit: narrow (39/100)
Focal point
Border
Pollinator
Light
Full sun
Water
Moderate water
Mature size
30-48" tall · 24" apart
Hardy in zones
5a-9b
very cold to frosty winters
Native in Illinois
No
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In its South African habitat the nectar-rich tubular flowers are bird-pollinated — sunbirds feed at the spikes and carry the pollen — and in the Americas hummingbirds work them the same way; bees also visit for nectar.
Cold hardiness
These values are location-based: this location's current hardiness is the baseline, and the 2050 value is a projected future climate for this same location.
Now
Zone 6b
Plotwright
USDA Zone 6b
-5°F to 0°F
Well-suited
Zone 7a
Plotwright
0°F to 5°F
Well-suited
In plain terms: This location has cold winters. Its winters are projected to keep warming through 2050.
✓
Well-suited today and still thriving in 2050.
Heat tolerance
Heat tolerance values are location-based too: heat days today are observed at this site, and the 2050 value projects this same location under a future climate.
Loading AHS heat-zone data for this location...
Where this plant fits
Suitable across 41 ecoregions — 39 climate-resilient through 2070 · 1 suited today · 1 newly possible by 2070. Best matches first.
Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests
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Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests
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Arizona Mountains forests
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Atlantic coastal pine barrens
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Blue Mountains forests
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Canadian Aspen forests and parklands
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Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests
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Central Tallgrass prairie
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Central-Southern Cascades Forests
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Chilean Matorral
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Similar plants
Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.
Agapanthus praecox
African lily
A bold, clump-forming evergreen perennial from South Africa, grown for big rounded umbels of trumpet-shaped blue (or white) flowers held on tall bare stalks above arching, strap-shaped leaves in mid-to-late summer. It is widely sold as "lily of the Nile," but that is a misnomer — the plant is South African (the Cape provinces and KwaZulu-Natal), not from the Nile. Spectacular and easy in warm climates, this evergreen Agapanthus is frost-tender, so in cold-winter areas it is grown in a container and overwintered under cover. The RHS has given several Agapanthus praecox forms its Award of Garden Merit and rates this evergreen species half-hardy (H3 — needs winter protection).
Hylotelephium 'Herbstfreude'
Autumn-joy stonecrop
A clump-forming herbaceous perennial grown for its showy late-season flower heads: masses of tiny star-like flowers borne in flattened cymes 3-6 inches across that emerge rosy pink, deepen to rose-red, and fade to coppery-rust as they die. Gray-green, fleshy, succulent-like leaves form upright clumps to about 2 feet. Easily grown in dry-to-medium, well-drained soil in full sun, it is drought tolerant and attracts butterflies, and its foliage and dead inflorescences persist into winter for added interest.
Baptisia australis
Blue false indigo
A long-lived native perennial of central and eastern US woodland borders and prairie meadows with deep blue pea-shaped flowers in late spring, blue-green leguminous foliage, attractive black seed pods for winter interest, and a nitrogen-fixing root system (Fabaceae). Larval host for 6 documented butterfly species per NC State (orange sulphur, clouded sulphur, frosted elfin, eastern tailed-blue, hoary edge, wild indigo duskywing) — among the highest Lep-host-count perennials in the eastern flora.
Eryngium planum
Blue sea holly
An architectural, branching perennial grown for the metallic steel-blue flush it takes on in summer: small, egg-shaped flowerheads, each ringed by a collar of spiny, silvery-blue bracts, are held on rigid, blue-tinted stems above a basal rosette of leathery, heart-shaped leaves. It is a tough, genuinely drought-tolerant plant for hot, dry, sharply drained, even poor sandy or gravelly soil in full sun — it resents rich, wet ground, where it rots and flops — which makes it ideal for gravel gardens and coastal, seaside plantings, and one of the best long-lasting cut and dried flowers. At the height of summer it is a magnet for bees, butterflies, and hoverflies. It is grown purely as an ornamental and is not eaten.
Lobelia cardinalis
Cardinal flower
A short-lived native perennial of wet woodland edges, stream banks, and ditches across the Americas, named for the brilliant scarlet-red flowers that rise on erect, unbranched terminal spikes from mid-to-late summer. Each tubular, two-lipped bloom is shaped for the hummingbird tongue — the plant depends on ruby-throated hummingbirds for pollination because most insects cannot work the long flower tube. It demands constant moisture and tolerates brief flooding, but its foliage carries alkaloids that are very toxic to humans if eaten.
Digitalis purpurea
Common foxglove
A tall biennial or short-lived perennial of western, southern, and central Europe, long grown in cottage gardens and at woodland edges for its dramatic one-sided spikes of pendulous, funnel-shaped flowers. The first year forms a basal rosette of soft, wrinkled leaves; the second sends up a 2-to-5-foot spike of strawberry-pink, purple, or white tubular blooms spotted purple and white inside, from May into June. Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder notes the flowers are attractive to hummingbirds — and that the plant is highly poisonous, its leaves being the source of the heart drug digitalis.
Sources & citations
Cite this page
For lesson plans, articles, or research that uses this page. To cite a single upstream fact instead, use its specific source listed below.
Plotwright. (2026, May 17). Red-hot poker (Kniphofia uvaria). Retrieved 2026, June 25, from https://plotwright.com/plants/kniphofia-uvaria
Sources for every fact
Every fact on this page traces to a source. 18 fields cited - 18 source-backed.
Plants of the World Online (POWO)
Botanical research database
Backs 17 fields
Identity
Summary
Plant type
Light
Moisture
Hardiness
Heat zone
Size
Spacing
Habit
Design roles
Seasonal interest
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