One of the new plant introductions this year, King Tut papyrus, really loves the heat. It seems to put on more height the hotter it gets. The stalks, which are three-sided, can grow to 6 ft. x 36 in. (1.8 m x 90 cm) .
King Tut is a papyrus that does well in a bed or border with normal moisture—a pond location isn’t necessary.
“It looked elegant in our trial garden,” said Roger Tschanz, University of Guelph trial garden manager back in early spring. And he’s right. It does add a dramatic look.
If growing in a container, Tschanz recommends watering every day. Baby Tut, a variety of umbrella grass (Cyperus involucratus), is shorter (24 in./60 cm), more mounded and has broader leaves at the top. Both are tender perennials. Sun for both.
King Tut is a Proven Winners introduction this year.
Will this plant survive our winters in central Ontario or should it be lifted and brought inside?
My King Tut papyrus has gone into overdrive in a container planting. Once the stalks get tall (and some are hitting close to 6 feet) they bend over and break. Am going to have to get creative to hold them up. My baby tut on the other hand is younger and seems to be in check, however it is sending up new stalks like crazy. Will definitely plant these again, they get lots of compliments.
Linda,
King Tut is only hardy to zone 10, so it will not survive your Ontario winter. It also isn’t a good candidate to be overwintered indoors. I’ve repeatedly asked our grass expert if it could be overwintered inside and he always tells me no. The one caveat to that is if you have a greenhouse or sunroom – then overwintering it indoors is a possibility.
Kerry
Proven Winners
Gary,
My King Tut is about 5 feet tall now (I have it in a galvanized metal bushel basket with no drainage holes) and was planted from a 4.5″ pot in May and it almost never has a stem kink over. This is despite several bouts of quite strong winds. Usually if you have stems kinking over it is because the plant is getting dry.
If you have King Tut in a pot by itself try blocking the drainage holes to help keep it well hydrated. If it is in a pot with other plants or planted in the ground make sure the ground never gets completely dry.
The other suggestion I have to keep it really healthy and strong is to make sure you fertilize. If the plant is at all light green or yellowish start using a well balanced water soluble fertilizer once a week or so to give it a boost. I use our Proven Winners water soluble fertilizer but any fertilizer with a 2:1:2 or 2:1:1.5 ratio would be good. Look for something like a 20:10:20, 20:10:15 or 24:12:17, or another formulation along those lines. In July I started supplementing the controlled-release fertilizer I used at planting with water soluble fertilizer. I can tell that the newer stems are super strong. A few of the older stems that grew before I started adding additional fertilizer droop a bit, but the rest are ramrod straight and the stems are quite thick.
Thee is the potential that if the plant gets really old, it can sometimes shed old stems from the outside of the plant, to “make room” for newer, younger stems. I don’t think this will happen in a season, but if you live in a warm enough climate for it to overwinter this could be your issue. The King Tut I grew last year, I had it from May to almost December, and it never got old enough to start shedding old stems. When I lost stems it was always from dry conditions. So if your plant is less than a year old I would look to dry and hungry rather than old. If it is more than a year old,then the stems kinking over could be King Tut shedding old stems to make room for new.
Kerry
Proven Winners
Kerry
Great information on the King Tut. Mine is planted alongside my larger pond waterfall. It is doing great! Gets plenty of water from the waterfall’s spray. I will most definitely plant both the King Tut and Baby Tut again next year.
Doris