A shockingly outrageous plant with a colour scheme that screams bad taste but somehow works. The paddle shaped leaves are the most gaudy mix of green, pink, red, yellow and orange stripes and the flower spike is topped with large, brilliant orange flowers that only your grandmother could like. It sounds like I am giving this plant a bad wrap but I really hate it, yet, at the same time, love it.
The rhizomes are reliably hardy in warmer parts of the UK and can be left in the ground for the winter if given a thick mulch. In colder parts lift the rhizomes after the first frost has damaged the foliage, remove the dead stems and store in slightly moist peat in a cool, dark but frost free room. Tolerates most soils and loves bucket loads of water and fertilizer once spring growth is underway. Plant in full sun to part shade. The best flowering seems to come from plants grown in full sun but the largest, lushest leaves come from plants grown in part shade. Maximum height 120cm.
Sent as a young plant in a 9cm pot. May be cut back for shipping. Sent as dormant plants in winter.
Additional photos by By cultivar413 from Fallbrook, California - 190909 118 Chicago Botanic Gdn - Enabling Garden, Zinnia Uproar™ Rose, Canna Tropicanna®, Iresine herbstii Bloodleaf, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83472697, By Photo by David J. Stang - source: David Stang. First published at ZipcodeZoo.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61178303