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Identification please

Lyn Plant-WellsLyn Plant-Wells Posts: 338
in Plants
Hello everyone. I hope you are all well and enjoying your gardens at this difficult time.  
I looked this plant up on the ‘net and the nearest I could find blooms in autumn! 
I’d be grateful to know what aspect it prefers. I live on the IoW - my small front border is in shade virtually all year while most of my little back garden can get extremely hot. It can also be quite windy as my property is elevated.
Sorry pics are sideways! 🙄



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  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Their common name is Kaffir Lily and they like it hot and sunny, being form South Africa - https://www.rhsplants.co.uk/plants/_/hesperantha-coccinea-major/classid.3579/  -
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Lyn Plant-WellsLyn Plant-Wells Posts: 338
    edited March 2020
    Hi Thanks for your response. I checked out this and it certainly looks like my plant - but it says it flowers August/September. Mine is in flower now!
  • Guernsey Donkey2Guernsey Donkey2 Posts: 6,713
    I thought Kaffir lily too, I also have them but again mine flower in late summer. Perhaps it is confused, I certainly am at the moment.
  • Alan Clark2 in LiverpoolAlan Clark2 in Liverpool Posts: 2,190
    I grow them, and I have occasionally had them producing a few flowers at the wrong time. I am sure the ID is correct. It is not unusual for other flowers to bloom out of season.
  • TenNTenN Posts: 184
    People tend to use the more official name now, Kaffir being a word of apartheid.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    They are very easy to grow from seed, I’ve got several in pots, sown last year, big enough to flower this year hopefully. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Lyn Plant-WellsLyn Plant-Wells Posts: 338
    edited March 2020
    Nickten - I know it’s not related but I’ve seen Kaffir Lime Leaves in Thai grocer shops 🤔
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    The ‘k word’ is considered a racist slur due to its use during apartheid in S Africa (where your plant originated) so it isn’t used any more in relation to the plant. 

    In the Eastern Asia it isn’t regarded as a racist insult so is still used for the lime, although in S Africa and some other places now it’s referred to as the Thai lime. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Lyn Plant-WellsLyn Plant-Wells Posts: 338
    Too silly! Looking for slurs where none intended!
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited March 2020
    Silly?!? It was intentionally used in a racist way during apartheid so of course it's racist. 
    Nothing silly about it. 

    "...In South Africa, the use of the term Kaffir to refer to a black African is a profoundly offensive and inflammatory expression of contemptuous racism that is sufficient grounds for legal action. The term is associated especially with the era of apartheid, when it was commonly used as an offensive racial slur, and its offensiveness has only increased over time. It now ranks as perhaps the most offensive term in South African English...." https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Kaffir

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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