Torch Lily
Tritoma uvaria.
FAMILIAR name is not often so obviously justified as the name of the flower before us; a less elegant but quite appropriate and even more familiar name for it is "Red-hot Poker." Whatever may be said for its beauty, it is certainly the most striking flower for its season, making a fiery glow in the shrubbery borders and a genuine conflagration in the parterre. It is scarcely a proper subject for the parterre, perhaps; in any case, to plant tritomas in masses is a bold proceeding, needing a little extra care to avoid a violation of good taste. We have used them in masses with singularly good effect in a country garden, where there were ample breadths of grass and trees. The tritomas were in large, long beds, and mixed with them were lilies, and the outer boundary was made up with agapanthus, which, as a hardy plant, flowers at the same time as the tritoma, and, when established, flowers as freely. The flame or torch lily will thrive in any good soil, but a deep sandy loam is certainly the best for it. Occasionally it produces seed freely, but we must confess we never took the trouble to sow any, because we could always obtain as many plants as were required by the simple process of division, which not only multiplies the stock, but insures flowering plants at once, without the necessity for nursing. It has been our rule, in dividing tritomas, agapanthuses, crinums, and other such plants, to pot the divisions in the smallest pots possible with sandy soil, and so keep them until growing freely, when, the pots being filled with roots, they may be planted out with safety. In places where the climate is genial and the soil dry, the divisions may be planted where they are to remain, for there will be but little risk of failure. These fine plants are thirsty subjects, and if it be possible to supply them with abundance of water during hot, dry, summer weather, they will repay such attention with liberal interest. But it is of the very first importance that the ground they occupy should be reasonably dry during winter. A boggy or sour situation will insure the death of many in a severe winter, but on well-drained land these plants are perfectly hardy; and if killed down in spring, as will sometimes happen, they will in due time renew themselves from the roots, if left undisturbed and kept free from encroaching plants that might spread over and injure them.
Tritomas are natives of South Africa, and members of the great order of Lilies. There are not many species, and the few recorded are more than are wanted, if their value is to be estimated from the gardener's point of view. We begin with T. uvaria, as the best of the group in respect of hardiness, amplitude of dark, rigid leafage, and an abundant production of its cylindrical racemes of fiery flowers.
The varieties known as T. glaucescens and T. Burchelli have no special value as garden flowers, but will prove interesting to amateurs whose tastes range freely amongst plants. But for T. nobilis and for T. grandis a good word may be said. These are noble plants, and have a remarkably fine effect when well placed in a spacious rockery. T. nobilis is scarce and dear; T. uvaria is plentiful and cheap, and the best for all general purposes, though in character below that of T. nobilis.
Tritoma caulescens is a beautiful plant, with peculiar glaucous leafage and a stout stem, bearing a dense head of flowers of a fiery-red colour passing into yellow. It is strikingly distinct, and a proper adornment of a roomy rockery, where it should have a sunny situation on a well drained sandy soil. It is hardy, but unequal to the endurance of severe conditions; therefore it is advisable to give it some protection during frosty weather. T. carnosa is a good plant, of smallish growth, forming a series of tufts, from which rise the flower-stalks, a foot or more high, bearing crowded flowers of a rich orange-buff colour.
T. Macowani is a pretty little plant, usually regarded as requiring greenhouse cultivation, although it is probably hardy. The flowers are in a dense cluster, the tube red, the mouth yellow.
T. Rooperi is a grand plant, from British Kaffraria. The leaves are broad, and average eighteen inches long; the flowers appear on a stout stem, and form a club-like mass, brilliantly coloured red and yellow. It is as hardy as T. uvaria, and flowers later.
In gardens that afford accommodation for interesting plants of robust habit many fine subjects may be associated with tritomas. Not a few of these are also lilyworts, such as asphodels, fritillarias, day lilies, funkias, or plantain lilies, phormiums, yuccas, and aspidistras. The closely allied order of amaryllids will supply for the same purpose, crinums, alstromerias, and vallotas. For the cool plant house the last-named order gives agaves, clivias, doryanthes, and true amaryllis, all of them having high claims on the attention of amateurs who are not wedded to the commonplace in the pursuit of pleasure in the garden.