Hesperantha coccinea ‘Mrs Hegarty’

Lovely starry pale-pink flowers in autumn above fresh grassy semi-evergreen foliage

Hesperantha coccinea 'Mrs Heggarty'

Hesperantha coccinea 'Mrs Heggarty'

Hesperantha coccinea 'Mrs Hegarty', 2 litre container

Established plants in two-litre containers

Description

Hesperantha coccinea ‘Mrs Hegarty’ (commonly known as the Crimon Flag Lily) is a really useful addition to the garden for its ability to light up warm September and October days when colour is fading from the garden as it settles down for the winter. Hesperanthas have neat, upright grassy foliage, much like a small Iris, which slowly clumps and spreads and provides useful vertical interest and contrast from the moment the new foliage emerges in spring right through into the winter (in a mild winter it will stay evergreen). For us the foliage always seems to stay looking fresh, only browning and fading away following a hard frost in winter. In mid to late autumn the plant comes into its own, when there are few other flowers around, and sends up spikes adorned with star-like pale pink flowers that sparkle in the low autumn sun and mingle beautifully with browning grasses.

These established, garden-ready plants have been grown in peat-free compost at our nursery in Cornwall and are supplied in two-litre containers. The plants will reach an ultimate size of up to 60cm (2 feet or so) in a clump of a little over half of that. If the conditions are good it will slowly spread around – but always in a way that is easy to control.

Growing Advice

We find Hesperanthas a real stick it in the ground and forget plant. In harsh winters if the foliage dies back it is good to just cut the foliage back in early to mid-spring to make way for new foliage coming through. The flowering often seems to depend on the amount of sun the plant has had during the warmer months – so to help with it grow it in as sunny a spot as you can give it – it’s ideal at the front of a border with good drainage and larger, broad-leaved perennials and shrubs behind. They are also a plant that are good grown in groups – this makes for a more impactful display when the flowers do arrive. The only real challenge we have with ours is that Cornwall tends to get quite fierce autumn rains, which can sodden the flowers before they get a real chance to shine, but a bit of careful support and staking will help with that.

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