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The flowers of this bright red Hesperantha coccinea ‘Major’ (AKA crimson flag lily or river lily) are bright enough to rival the glow of other late summer flowers. They can easily compete with Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’, the heleniums, bright red kniphofia and ginger lilies from some of my recent posts.
While this hesperantha’s colour is rich and glowing, its flower has great elegance too. The simple curving shapes of the petals and the way the flowers are held on the long stems give the plant a graceful air. The detail that perfects it for me is the long style that divides into three and overlaps the petal edges. (The style is the female part of the flower’s anatomy that connects the pollen receptor to the ovary.)
I love the look of these flowers, but have found it difficult to keep this plant going in my own garden. The dry soil here isn’t suitable for them, as you’d guess from the ‘river lily’ name, and my attempts to keep them watered haven’t been enough. Hesperantha prefers damp soil, but the roots might rot if I tried planting it in the pond.
It would be good to find a suitable place to grow these…perhaps in their own little bog garden. (The bog garden I made a few years ago has now filled up with Siberian irises, so not much space there.) The beauty of these flowers, which can last until the first frosts, would make the extra effort to create a second bog garden worthwhile. It would have to be a very small bog garden though!
Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature 
Lovely photos. I hope my recent purchase is holding up to the wind this weekend!
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Thanks Jude! Weather like this makes it scary to look outside – hope all in the garden is OK!
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I’m in love! What a beautiful plant, and what a gorgous shade of red. They remind me of our scarlet catchfly: one of my east Texas favorites. Both just glow — and this one is native in a very few Texas counties, although it’s apparently quite rare. I only glanced at the counties where it’s been documented, and as I recall they’re in the far southern parts of the state. It would be great if they could be established in your garden!
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It’s a worthy object of your love…and it has mine too. I’ll try again next year if I can create a little dampish area for it. It would be great to have those flowers at this time of year, when things are starting to go over.
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Beautiful, bold color. The flowers look almost like they are waxed. Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks Madeline! I love the looks of these – the other colours (pink or white) are beautiful too.
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Truly bold with that blood red colour, Ann! No doubt, they are lovely!
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They are something special for autumn, so it will be worth the effort to try to create an area of damp soil for them…a project for next year! 🙂
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I have never grown this. It is dramatic
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The colour goes well with the other bold end-of-summer flowers, but there is the choice of white or pink for gentler colour schemes too and they’re just as beautiful.
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I will search for one in the spring. Thanks Ann
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🙂
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The “Hesper” in “Hesperantha” means ‘evening.’ Is this a flower that opens in the evening?
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This plant used to be called Schizostylis coccinea but it was decided that it actually belonged to the Hesperantha genus. I think that the name probably derives from other flowers that were already in the Hesperantha genus. I don’t know if the flowers of this first open in the evening but I do know that they stay open during the day.
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