Wallflower Fire King

Dense spikes in a vibrant deep fiery orange, and the strongest warm colour available in a spring garden. Very little else flowering in March and April can match it for intensity.

The scent is the classic wallflower perfume, honey and clove and spice, and it is heavier on a warm still day than most spring flowers manage.

Orange this strong needs handling. It is superb under near-black tulips, where the contrast is about as sharp as spring planting gets, and it works with cream and pale yellow for warm tonal layering. Put it next to pink and it fights. Compact and bushy at 30 to 40cm, flowering March through May.

It is a biennial, so it wants sowing in summer for flowers the following spring. There is nothing to look at in the first year but a rosette of leaves.

All parts are poisonous if eaten, so keep it away from children and pets and wear gloves when handling it.