Highly (in my experience)

This is only our second season with this plant and yes last year we did observe humming birds at it but none this year so far.

Seedlings that arose this spring and hopefully to be full grown flowering plants in 2021:

Aren't they cute? What is that mass of white stuff beside them? :)

And just a week earlier they were all covered with 8" of snow!

(I dont have any experience with SG as a 2nd year plant....just curious if it is likely they will all make it through the winter)

A question rouge. Do your aggregata plants die after blooming, monocarpic? If so, how do you start the new plants? I think your seedlings in the ground will overwinter. I wasn't sure my plants would overwinter in Illinois, but they did. I'm growing the eastern Ipomopsis rubra, Standing Cypress. Aggregata is more of a western species, but I believe both are winter annuals, that germinate and grow into small rosettes and then overwinter, and then bloom the following year. Burpee sells seeds for Ipomopsis rubra, that are supposed to bloom the 1st year from seed. I've tried growing them, and they are weak, sickly looking and pathetic, with very few blooms. The Burpee seeds come in an array of softer colors too, like cream and coral, which I don't get, because the hot red is the most desirable. I think one difference between the 2 species is that aggregata prefers drier conditions, especially in winter. I have heard stories that Ipomopsis will bloom the first year from seed if they have a long enough growing season.

I'm thinking I. rubra might just be a tad bit more cold hardy in than aggregata.

Texas and Oklahoma can grow both with no worries

Excellent info Jay....thanks.

For two years in a row a friend was kind enough to dig out 2nd year plants (in May) and give them to me to put in my garden (and being 2nd year's in her garden they flowered as expected).

I hand sowed seeds from those plants in the Fall of 2019 and got lots of seedlings that are pictured just above and as you assured me ;) they will be around come spring and hopefully flower in 2021. (And the seeds from my "Scarlet Gilia" that flowered this past year, a donation from my friend, I hand sowed in the Fall and if all goes as expected I won't need anymore help from my friend :)).

Where abouts are you? In Canada? I noticed 1 Ipomopsis seedling coming up from seeds I must have scattered, so I should hopefully have 1 blooming plant next year. All the seeds from this years flowers didn't drop in time to germinate, so I'll collect them, and then I'll direct sow them next summer, so they have time to germinate for flowers in 2022.

Hey Jay, yes I am in S.Ontario.

For the past two seasons all the flowering plants have been in a container and so it is easy to collect the seeds. This year I sowed them in late Fall (I think I threw some about in late October and early November).