Description
Huge umbels, 40-60 cm are made up of up to 50 rose-pink, bright pink-red or even claret flowers. These are individually large (3 cm across). They have deeper stripes down the centre of the petals and are held in a spectacular football head. They appear just before or with the leaves, late in autumn.
It is a plant of high altitude grasslands at up to 3,000 m in S. Africa. (Ours is a robust form that grows in the mountainous grasslands of the Hogsback area, eastern Cape). It is unusual in having upright leaves. These are thick, wavy-edged, grey dusted and very decorative.
It grows in summer rainfall areas, but remarkably, it is summer-dormant. The leaves do not appear until autumn, persist through winter and die back as temperatures rise in spring. This cycle means that although summer-dormant, it tolerates water well during dormancy. It is very amenable to cultivation. It grows in areas subject to frosts and snowfalls, so exhibits cold tolerance though it must not freeze.
Well-drained compost with drainage materials (pumice, fired clay granules, silver sand, rounded gravel), and plenty of humus. Feeding increases the number of flowers.
