Odontonema strictum Check with George Standing water is no obstacle

Standing water is no obstacle

and fall brings warm color along with large

Deer and rabbits walk past them

and flowers are coated in a sticky

along a sunny bank

Odontonema strictum Check with George Standing water is no obstacleFew plants light a shaded corner the way firespike does. Odontonema strictum raises erect spikes of slender, tubular, scarlet flowers to a foot long from late summer into winter, each spike a torch held above dark, glossy, quilted foliage. The genus name pairs the Greek odous, a tooth, with nema, a thread, for the toothed filaments inside the bloom, and the plant answers to a tangle of common names, firespike, cardinal's guard, and firestick among