Sometimes a plants’ cultivar epithet helpfully gives us a clue about its colour. This may be the flower colour or another pertinent property, which the botanist who named it, thought they would like to use to describe it. In the case for the plant Helleborus Anna’s Red (Frostkiss Series), which blooms here at the nursery for month after Christmas, the cultivar name gives a pretty good clue as to the flower’s colour even if they are more purply-red than pure red. These beautiful jewel-like flowers stand up proudly well above the lovely marbled evergreen foliage and certainly, do light up a cold grey winters’ day.

Helleborus Anna’s Red (Frostkiss Series)

As I write this in early Spring it reminds me that Clematis Rouge Cardinal, (and other type 2 Clematis), can be pruned now; to encourage splendid blooms in summer and prevent the plant from becoming a jumbled mess. Its cultivar name doubly reminds us that the flowers are a shade of red as both Rouge and Cardinal mean red, in French and Latin respectively. Again, it is more pinkie, purply red than pure red and this is a common theme with the red flowers as they can have such a wide range of colours and shades.

Clematis Rouge Cardinal

Filipendula rubra ‘Venusta’ has a specific epithet 'rubra' to suggest the reddish coloured flowers which as you can see are just like pink candyfloss. You may also come across the epithets: rubens, (ruber) rubrum, (rubra and rubri) from the same Latin root, so there is: Shisandra rubriflora, with red flowers, Plantago Major rubrafolia, with red leaves.

Filipendula rubra ‘Venusta’

Centranthus ruber var. coccineus also has a variety epithet meaning deep carmine red which you may, or may not agree with. On the other hand Hesperantha coccinea Major has a specific epithet which bears no criticism.

Centranthus ruber var. coccineus

Hesperantha coccinea Major

Dianthus cruentus lives up to its ‘bloody’ epithet and Helianthemum Rhodanthe Carneum (Wisely Pink) has flesh coloured flowers to match its ‘carneum’ epithet.

Dianthus cruentus

Dierama igneum

The fire-like descriptor ‘ignea’, suggests volcanoes spewing hot red lava and Cuphia ignea ‘Roxy’ with its reddish pink tubular flowers with lilac tinged lips, certainly lives up to its name as does Dierama igneum. Other fire-like words include ‘flammendes’ and Helenium ‘Flammmendes Kathchen’ has all the colours associated with fire.

Helenium ‘Flammmendes Kathchen’