The flowers of Persicaria amplexicaulis ' Firetail ' burn brightly from mid-July into September. It's a tough shrub that seems to cope with most soils and summers, be it drought or downpour. The leaves drop in autumn and the stems die back over winter then start to push through again in late spring. Late enough in fact to plant the area with the earlier spring flowering bulbs like Snowdrops and Corydalis.