Scarlet semi-double ruffled flowers with a cluster of golden stamens at the centre, on wiry stems at 45 to 60cm that hold them clear of the foliage so they seem to hang in mid-air. It has been passed between English gardens for well over a century and it holds an RHS Award of Garden Merit.
The red is the thing. It is not a hard fire-engine scarlet but a slightly orange, strawberry-toned red that sits happily beside pink, purple and blue, which most reds do not. The gold stamens keep it looking clean even in high summer.
Like 'Lady Stratheden' it will grow on heavy clay, which is unusual in a decorative perennial and valuable where the choice is limited. It starts as the tulips finish and can run to September, but only if it is deadheaded regularly; allowed to seed, it stops by midsummer. The semi-evergreen foliage looks shabby by late winter and wants shearing off in early spring. Lift and divide every three or four years, or the clump goes woody in the middle and the flowering falls away.
