Nice! A treat for the beneficial insects and hummingbirds too!

Saw these at HD for five dollars. Even prettier than the picture.

Well, if they are at HD, they are at Lowe's then. I'll be there next week looking. They don't get as large as the species firebush, so I'm thinking it wouldn't be a bad thing to put inside the courtyard to attract insects and that hummingbird that keeps flitting around here.

IFAS says that hamelia patens is a part sun to shade plant, but I'm seeing other places that say it needs full sun.

ugh. Can anyone clarify for me?

Full sun and don't overwater.

Wow that's pretty

oldmangroot, they bloom better in full sun, but they'll grow in part shade. Had one thriving at my old house that only got afternoon sun.

Last year I saw the Lime Sizzler Firebush at Lukas nursery, they said that they had the patent.? I bought 3 plants that time a dark crape myrtle still alive and 2 Lime Sizzler, one for me and other one for a friend. I don't know if his is still alive in zone 9a but mine did not last long. It was planted last September in full sun in the front yard, when we got some cold nights I did not protected and it is not around anymore.

The dark crape still alive, in the bottom is the Lime Sizzler

And the Lime Sizzler that I don't have it anymore...

Silvia

Silvia, my firebush always died back in the winter in 9b, but it came back out. This one must not be as cold hardy. If I get one, I'll be sure to put it in a protected place.

Wow, Silvia, we didn't get many cold nights and those that we did get weren't that cold. This must be a very cold-sensitive plant. Did you have it in a pot when it died?

Maybe it was just too young to survive cold temps without protection. Definitely something to keep in mind.

Hi Tom

Yes, I agree with you, we don't have that many cold nights anymore and I had it planted in the ground on a slope next to the neighbors yard, I also have a thriallis in that section doing fine and without care. The front yard gets cooler than the backyard and it is also windier.

D, I think the same thing that it was too young and needed care, if planted in the spring it might be totally different results.

Silvia

Silvia, I guess growing up in SC, I learned that you never plant anything smaller than a 5-gallon plant if you want it to live through the winter. Now it's 3-gallons, but I still even feel bad about that, even down here. I remember plants being advertised as "2 year old plants," because one-year-old shrubs most likely wouldn't make it through the winter.

One year when I was in 9b/10a, I had a beautiful tree jatropha that I had grown very carefully from a cutting, kept in a pot for 3 years, and had just planted out that spring. We had a freeze, and it died back to the ground. It did come back out eventually from the roots, but it broke my heart It was never as pretty again.

I have a friend who will not plant anything in her yard that isn't cold hardy one zone colder. She says she's lost too many things to freak cold snaps, so she wants to be sure the never does again.

dirtygardener, I have fire bushes in various parts of my yard, with various results. Best looking bush is in good soil, gets fed and watered, and mostly mid-day sun. The bush in the shade gets deluged with rain roof runoff... leaves get spots from too much rain, and stretches upward to catch sun and bloom, so is too spindly ... but its blooms do bring zebra longwings and the rare humming bird for nectar, right at a large window, so I've been slow to replace it with a new one. (The ones against a west fence are in bright light, poor soil, only rain, are spindly and barely bloom, or have quickly died.

Jatropha brings the same wildlife and seems to have the same requirements.

Irma, I miss my jatropha. It's supposedly too cold for them up here, but I saw one on the University campus that looked hale and hearty, so who knows? The winters have been pretty warm lately, so I might actually try a jatropha.

I like the Dark Crape Myrtle. I am always looking for interesting dark or colored leaved plants that will survive here.

Sultry, I brought a purple-leaf plum down from SC with me. It never bloomed, but the leaves were gorgeous. I've seen a couple up here, but don't know if they bloom. In SC, the whole tree was just a cloud of pink blooms in the spring.