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Eucomis comosa 'Sparkling Burgundy' (Red Pineapple Lily) - A tropical-looking bulbous plant that forms a rosette of upright 2 inch wide by 18 inch long dark reddish-purple leaves with wavy margins. In late July emerges the 2 to 2 1/2-foot-tall spike bearing a tight terminal cluster of reddish-purple buds that open as pale pink to white flowers, all topped by a leafy crown of reddish-purple leafy bracts. These tufted flower bracts resemble small pineapples on a stick and give this plant its common name.
Plant in coastal full sun to light shade in a well-drained soil and irrigate regularly - although from South Africa this plant comes from summer rainfall areas and needs fairly regular summer irrigation to look its best. Hardy to at least USDA Zone 8 - some claim down into zone 6. The foliage turns greener during the flowering period, and it has been noted that if foliage and flowers are trimmed to the ground after the flowers are spent, new dark foliage emerges. A great plant for the garden and the flowers are long-lasting when cut for the vase.
Eucomis comosa comes from the summer rainfall Eastern Cape to KwaZulu-Natal of South African where is found growing long the coastal belt and inland, on damp, grassy places on hillsides, and along river and stream banks. The name for the genus comes from the Greek word 'eu' for "good" and 'kome' meaning "hair" in reference to the attractive flower heads. The specific epithet is Latin meaning "furnished with a tuft" or " bearing tufts of leaves", again in reference to the showy bracts on top of the flowers. This cultivar was selected at the J.C. Raulston Arboretum by Edith Eddlemen in the late 1980s and it was awarded the prestigious Royal Horticulture Award of Garden Merit in 2002. We began growing this cultivar in 2008 from plants purchased from the micropropagation (TC) nursery Agristarts. The picture on this page courtesy of Roger Raiche.
The information displayed on this page about Eucomis comosa 'Sparkling Burgundy' is based on our research conducted about this plant from books in our nursery library as well as from information that is provided by reliable online resources. We also have included our own observations made about it as it grew in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers when we had them in our nursery field. We also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.
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