Schizostylis Coccinea Major

27.06.2023 - 08:50 / aberdeengardening.co.uk

Schizostylis Coccinea Major is a total eye catcher in the garden at a time when perhaps, you think its all over. Possibly the star of all the Autumn flowers, it is a vigorous clump forming perennial with erect sword shaped leaves and single red flowers.

Flowering period can be from September through till November, even in our cooler Aberdeen climate, although this year the first flowers did not show until the second week of October.

All varieties are said to have been cultivated from a single South African species. They are suitable for growing at the front of a herbaceous border or at the base of a south facing wall. Schizostylis is also a great plant for the unheated greenhouse where it will flower continually through most of the Winter.

This one in our front garden was planted in a  north west facing border  right in front of a couple of fairly tall conifers.  Everything about this is wrong.  First of all Schizostylis is said to dislike a position where the soil dries out in Summer, well as you can imagine these trees make great demand on the available moisture.  Also they are said to grow well in a south facing position, or at least where sun shines most of the day.  Our plant has been in this less sunny spot for seven years, it hasn’t flowered profusely every year, but generally does pretty well.

This year in spite of being a little later to bloom, it is outstanding with seven stems on the one plant.  I reckon the times when it was not so floriferous were years when rainfall was less and I was also not so fussy about keeping it well watered.  It is also said that the flowers can get damaged with the frost.  I have found after a frosty spell in November when the stems have drooped they do in fact recover