Ward,
At 2" long it doesn't quite sound like manettia luteo rubra or 'candycorn', can you post a photo, maybe you do have the cordifolia!
Cheri( strangley currently hummerless, except for the very rare visit of a totally insecure, and shy female, after weeks of pretty intense activity) Yeah feeling real sorry for myself!
Cheri
(aka hummymummy vancouver, b.c. canada z8)

Don't know for sure but sounds very much like manettia cordifolia, aka firecracker vine, highly desired by hummingbirds.

Thanks. That was my guess. It looks as if it is going to be a late summer flowering machine.

Ward that will be great for the hummers.

That's great Ward! I bought a little manietta candy corn at the Philadelphia flower show. it's in a large pot outside now outgrowing that pot. But it hasn't bloomed in several weeks since I repotted it and brought it outside. I don't know what I'm going to do with it this winter. It outgrew the windowsill. Sarah

My manettia luteorubra is burning up with all this heat here in Calif. I even have it under the lemon tree where it gets shade most all day. Even still, the hummers go after the flowers that are left on there. A couple more they go for is the bat-feced cuphea and the russelia sarmentosa.

Sara, don't give up on your little vine--it's a "keeper" and a real hummer-pleaser.

I know jardine it's growing like crazy! just not blooming. I will have to find someplace for it this winter. Do you still have your shrimp plant? I bought one the other day and put it outside in a pot near the window feeders and my"bully boy" took it over and is ready to attack anyone that comes near it! Here are a couple of pictures

The shrimp plant always makes me think of the lower Rio Grande Valley and winter Buff-bellied Hummingbirds. At Santa Ana NWR in winter it was one of the only things blooming so it was a great place to relax and wait, and usually before along....

Good pictures of your shrimp plant.

I bought a couple of Mexican Flame vines earlier this summer. They are growing like crazy but no blooms.

OMG, those pictures are absolutely ADORABLE!! And, yes I do have my shrimp plant--it is doing very well. I saw a yellow variety the other day and almost picked it up. What stopped me was that my hummers have not touched the one I have now. (*sigh*)

I DID pick up a cardinal creeper and some coral nymph salvia. Hopefully they will like those.

It got very hot for a week, and is now back in the low 80's. My Manettia, which had no further defining name, has climbed up a small trellis and large bamboo pole, has attacked the plant hanger and is now going for the streptocarpella and the Tutti Frutti and the vinyl siding - over ten feet tall and not about to stop, and not the faintest sign of a bloom - Mina Lobata is doing the same on the other side of the door, going after the hanging plants and anything available to twine upon. My Cardinal Climber has JUST taken off - sulked all summer about an inch off the ground - it is now about three feet tall - I don't think that vines and I do well together - perhaps I should wait till later in the season to plant them - now watch next year be a hot dry summer -

Ellery

Stange - some of the manettia flowers are white with a red tip. This has happened in several places with different amounts of red in the flowers. Too bad they are not on a particular vine, in which case in might be possible to take cuttings. Maybe this is common with this manettia, but it took me by surprise.

I was googling Manettia bicolor and found this old thread. Has anyone tried Manettia bicolor? It's in the Select Seeds catalogue, and I'm thinking of ordering some and growing it from seed this season. Any opinions on its potential attractiveness to hummingbirds? It seems to be a pretty small vine--about 3 feet tall or maybe a bit more. I might let it trail from a pot over a wall.

Here is a link that might be useful: Manettia bicolor from Select Seeds

Krisitn,
I have Manettia bicolor and have had it going on three years. 3 ft. tall is an understatement. The first year I had it (2 inch pot) it grew so big that when I brought it inside in the fall I could barely move the pot. The second year I cut it down before bringing it in. Mine have filled a 5ft. trellis every year before bringing it back inside in the fall. I have never seen the seeds. I have had limited success with cuttings.

Penny

Kristin,
I thought Select Seeds only sold the plant not seeds. My hummers did use it a lot but not as much as some of the other plants (salvias, agastaches, honeysuckle). It is a very cute vine and looks really great in the fall b/c of the colors and the fact that the little rubbery flowers look like candy corn.

Penny

You're right, Penny. It's plants they're selling, not seed. I'm getting a bunch of new things this spring and got mixed up. I don't think I've seen it offered as seed.

I've really gotten into making home made hummingbird feeders that I model after natural flowers, so this year I am making a big effort to increase the diversity of hummingbird plants in my garden. I've got plenty to interest them already--Bleeding Hearts, Columbine, Agastache, Salvia coccinea, Monarda didyma, Lobelia cardinalis and trumpet vine, and my usual pot of Cardinal Climbers, but I want to add more so that I can explore the sculptural possibilities of all these cool flowers. Plus, of course, it will be fun to have them growing in my garden.

I can't wait to add Lonicera sempervirens--want to do a feeder with multiple flower clusters, all accessible to the birds. I think the leaves are neat, too. Eccremocarpus scaber looks fun, too, and I'll be growing it from seed. Did you ever try Mandevilla? The flowers are very luxurious looking and I read somewhere that the hummers like them. I guess I'll find out. I'm also going to add Salvia guaranitica, the regular species, and also the "Black and Blue" form. I can't wait to sculpt all of these and see how the hummers react--both to the real flowers and the sculptural copies. Oh, and I almost forgot--Cuphea "Matchless," from seed, Penstemon "Iron Maiden," from seed, Ipomopsis from seed, and Abutilon, Spigelia marilandica and Abutilon "Dwarf Red" as plants. I've also got some Hollyhock seed lying around, but don't know where it will fit.

Thank goodness (and hard work!) that I greatly expanded the garden this past fall, so am hoping I'll be able to fit all of this stuff in! I'm looking forward to a busy, highly creative, and hummingbird filled year.

WOW! Kiristen you have your spring work cut out for you for sure. I have some seeds of Eccremocarpus scaber that I will be trying this year along with a few other salvias. I did cuttings of my Black & blue so I have a few of those already started for this year along with the Fan Remsen form which is even bigger and better than B&B. I sure hope that bitter cold we had this year didn't take out too many of my perennial hummer plants especially the ones that were borderline.

Penny

Yes, it's going to be a frenetic spring--pots and seed flats all over the house at every east and south facing window!

Likewise, in regards to the wintry weather we in the northeast have been getting, I'm worried about my Agastache--"Big Bazooka." I think my "Pink Panthers" are done for. The "Big Bazookas" looked fine earlier in the winter when it was so mild, but now with temperatures below zero these past few weeks, I'm concerned. One saving grace is that we got snow before the cold snap, so I'm hoping that it is providing a layer of protective insulation. Also, as cold as it's been, I don't think we ever got below -10 degrees, which I think is the average low for our zone 6 winters. Sometimes it gets to -20, and the coldest I remember was -23 degrees. Thankfully, it hasn't gotten quite that bitter. Yes, yes, you can chuckle, those of you in Canada, at our wimpy winters.

It looks like we've got close to 3 months to wait before the precious little souls return. I haven't been at this long enough not to be neurotic about it. I have this fear that they just won't make it back and I'll be hummingbirdless! I think that's an irrational fear, given the pretty good wooded suburban habitat around here. I have to keep telling myself that even if "mine" don't make it back, surely others will recolonize my garden. It will be fun to see if they recognize my feeders and head straight for them. The feeders look so much like real flowers (at least to my unsophisticated human eye!) that even the new birds shouldn't have much trouble catching on to them.

Kristin,
I have been doing this for quite a few years and I have to admit to you that every spring I get the same feeling that they may not return.....but they always do.

penny

Yes, it's going to be a frenetic spring--pots and seed flats all over the house at every east and south facing window!

Likewise, in regards to the wintry weather we in the northeast have been getting, I'm worried about my Agastache--"Big Bazooka." I think my "Pink Panthers" are done for. The "Big Bazookas" looked fine earlier in the winter when it was so mild, but now with temperatures below zero these past few weeks, I'm concerned. One saving grace is that we got snow before the cold snap, so I'm hoping that it is providing a layer of protective insulation. Also, as cold as it's been, I don't think we ever got below -10 degrees, which I think is the average low for our zone 6 winters. Sometimes it gets to -20, and the coldest I remember was -23 degrees. Thankfully, it hasn't gotten quite that bitter. Yes, yes, you can chuckle, those of you in Canada, at our wimpy winters.

It looks like we've got close to 3 months to wait before the precious little souls return. I haven't been at this long enough not to be neurotic about it. I have this fear that they just won't make it back and I'll be hummingbirdless! I think that's an irrational fear, given the pretty good wooded suburban habitat around here. I have to keep telling myself that even if "mine" don't make it back, surely others will recolonize my garden. It will be fun to see if they recognize my feeders and head straight for them. The feeders look so much like real flowers (at least to my unsophisticated human eye!) that even the new birds shouldn't have much trouble catching on to them.

I forgotten about this thread. I'm not sure how well you'll do with Cuphea Matchless - it is a cultivar of C. ignea who's flowers are slightly too small for Ruby-throats. David Verity is a better bet although since it is a hybrid you can't grow it from seed. I brought a couple of David Verity indoors in the fall. They have grown fine under lights and it is pretty easy to root cuttings. Hummingbirds absolutely love this Cuphea.

Manettia "Candy Corn Vine" can grow very tall. I tossed a string over a fir branch that was about 10 feet high and by September the plant made it to the top.

Wardda, thanks for the tip on Cuphea "Matchless," even if it is a somewhat negative observation. I'm wondering if I should bother to grow it, but then maybe I should just as an experiment. I've got plenty of other good, solid offerings, plus my feeders, so it's not the end of the world if the Matchless is a failure. I could swear I saw some photos posted on the internet somewhere showing hummers at Cuphea ignea, but can't remember if it was "Matchless." I think it might have been. I'll see if I can find it again. Maybe some individual birds deal with it, but others are squeamish. Or maybe there are variations within "Matchless."

You said the Manettia could get tall, but didn't say if the hummies liked it. Did they?

Yes, some folks do report that hummingbirds use their ignea, but I know several hummgardeners that report the same thing I found - Ruby-throats bills are slightly too large for the flowers and it spooks them. Aside from that they are one of my favorite bedding plants blooming and growing like crazy all summer. You will love them. Matchless is I think just one selection of many types of ignea. I believe ignea gets regular use in its tropical homeland by a species of hummingbird that is small than our Ruby-throats - sorry I can't remember which species.

Whether it be Manettia cordifolia or the other, Candy Corn Vine, it is the same - hummingbirds like them. I've never grown enough of either for them to be a major food item in my garden, but if you sat and watched you see that they get regular use.

Wardda, thanks for the info! I'll watch and see what they do.

I don't know if which ignea I had last summer but I am sure it wasn't David Verity since it was grown from seed. The flowers were a little small by my hummers definitley used it anyway. between the ignea that I had and the Bat-faced, I actually had more activity with Bat-faced. I am going to try and get my hands on David Verity this year. I am sure I will have to order it online as I have never seen any cupheas here.

penny

Contact me when it is safe to mail cuttings.

Anyone know why this plant gets black leaf tips/sides? Find them this way at the nursery.