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Kniphofia 'Christmas Cheer' (Christmas Cheer Poker Plant) - A rhizomatous perennial that is evergreen in frost free gardens with foliage 3 to 4 feet in an ever-widening clump with old clumps noted to be 8 to 10 feet wide. This variety blooms in the fall, winter and spring, making it a rather in the genus with its flowers on stout stems to 5 to 6 feet tall capped by a spike of reddish-orange tubular flowers.
Plant in full sun and irrigate occasionally to very little in coastal gardens. Is cold hardy to below 15 degrees F but winter flowers may be damaged with frost. Cutting the spent flower spikes out to the base will make the plant more attractive and promote longer flowering. John MacGregor, long time horticulturist at the Huntington Botanical Gardens, noted that this plant is one of the best winter hummingbird plants he knew of for mild climates.
Kniphofia 'Christmas Cheer' was introduced by the Huntington Botanical Gardens in the 1970s and is considered to be a hybrid with Kniphofia rooperi as the seed parent crossed with an unknown pollen parent. The name Kniphofia honors Johann Hieronymus Kniphof (1704 -1763), a German physician and botanist. The pronunciation of this genus is often argued about and while most continue to use the easiest to pronounce versions such as ny-FOE-fee-ah or nee-FOF-ee-a, others argue correctly that the name should follow the pronunciation of the name it commemorates. But even for this there are differences of opinion owing to different German regional dialects - one such pronunciation often noted as correct is nip-HOFF-ee-uh while another that is particularly hard to pronounce is k-nip-HOF-ia. Keeping it simple we still use ny-FOE-fee-ah.
We started growing this plant that we got from the Huntington Botanical Gardens in 1997 and continued to offer it until we closed the nursery in 2025 at which time we had sold over 9,500 of this beautiful plant.
Information displayed on this page about Kniphofia 'Christmas Cheer' is based on our research conducted about this plant in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about it as it has grown in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will 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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