I believe it is a seedling of already culivated/hybridised forms.

I doubt it has reverted (or sported?). It is most likely down to temperature (cold flower) and the bud must have been held back all winter. No cultivated Knipfhofia usually flowers now, the earliest is late May.

Alternatively you might have a seedling growing through the original plant, although again it would be an aberrant flower.

Hi, thanks for your response, it is definitely not a new seedling, and we have had colder winters than this, and they have always flowered at the right time, so I can't understand it being a flower that has been held back, I will hang on to it, and separate out the piece that's flowering now, see if I can get it flowering at the same time next year, and make a fortune with an early flowering Kniphofia, Derek.