Kniphofia 'Parmentier'

• common names: torch lily,  red-hot poker
• flowering season: July - August
• height: 3 - 3½ feet
• Light requirements: full sun, half a day of sun will do
• Soil requirements: average to rich and well drained
• Water requirments: will survive in a dry landscape although it will grow better and flower more profusely with a weekly deep watering during summer
• Growth habit: a slowly widening clump
• How to propagate: divide in spring or early summer
• Leaf type: narrow and moderately long
• Ways to use it: grows well with other flowering perennials in the sunny garden; grows well in a large pot on a terrace or deck where it will attract hummingbirds close to you house
• Special characteristics: its upright, spiky flowers have lots of character and are a focal point among other flowering plants, especially contrasting nicely with mounding and cushion shaped perennials
• Other points of interests: its flowers produce lots of nectar that attracts both hummingbirds and various songbirds that will cling to the stems to sip the nectar

   I have wondered how the word, parmentier, should be pronounced, as in French, or as in English, and what it means. There is a food dish named hachis parmentier that includes potatoes in its ingredients. If you google it you can find several You Tube videos on making hachis parmentier. The one I like best (click here) is a short 3-minute video in French. If you listen closely towards the video's end, the word, parmentier is spoken once or twice. However, here is a link (click here) that explains it further. Hachis parmentier refers to someone's name, that of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, who lived in the 1700's and introduced potatoes for human consumption in France. Before Parmentier, potatoes were thought to be fit only for livestock. The plant, 'Parmentier,' may be named for him or someone else bearing this name.