The Garden Club: Fireworks
Snap, crackle , pop, and Bang! That’s not cereal, the 4th of July is upon us. What better plant to research than a Firecracker! Try to Google that and you get, “Four people killed in firecracker (fireworks) plant (factory).” Persevering on, I found a number of botanical plants named “Firecracker.” I have a firecracker hibiscus, firecracker orchid, firecracker salvia, also, there’s firecracker daylilies, allium, and even Hamelia patens the fire bush sometimes called firecracker bush. Then the flat out “Firecracker” plants are many, with the few I knew about by working in a nursery, are Crossandra infundibuliformis, Cuphea ignea, also called cigar plant, or the vining Manettia luteorubra, Manettia bicolor, Manettia inflate, candy corn vine, and the Russelia equisetiformis, translated Russel’s horses tail. This is where knowing the Latin family, genus, species, and variety comes in handy. I have the Russelia quisetiformis, firecracker , or Coral plant, or Coralblow, or fountain plant. My daughter has the yellow variety of the orange Crossandra infundibuliformis and C. nilotica, Firecracker Flower, planted in her front walkway.
Her Crossandra plant was given its firecracker name because of the way it disperses its seed. The fruits dry out on the plant, and when introduced to water, the seeds “explode” out of the dried pods or fruit.
This insures that there is a supply of moisture in which the seeds can germinate. A charming shiny green leafed plant that also makes a great, cheery, indoor plant, when given sufficient light.
Cuphea ignea, another firecracker plant, also know as the cigar plant, is a semi-woody, two feet tall and wide shrub. It has two inch oblong dark green leaves with a shiny blue-green tint, opposite one another. A member of the loosestrife family, which also includes crape myrtle, it gets its name from the red-orange flowers, borne singly at the nodes, that are shaped like a stubby, one and a half inch cigar, with a small band of blue-black, and also a white band that resembles ashes, at the tips. Apropos if you like red cigars. In patriotic fervor, it is sometimes called the red, white, and blue plant. Ignea translates from Latin, to ignite, “fire,” which is what their seeds do when they burst open the round tube of the flower.
My firecracker was the weepy, Russelia equisetiformis, named for an English Doctor, A Russel. Being in the Figwort family, (conjures up images of “Harry Potter,” to my mind) SCROPHULAROACEAE, it’s multi reed like stems rise straight up and when they get top heavy from their many ferny tip stems and bright, inch long, red cylindrical blossoms, their weight pulls them downward into a weeping shape like a fountain of water. The blossoms hang down raining exploding firecrackers at their tips. I had coveted trying to grow this for many years but all my transplants died on me. I finally bit the bullet and bought a plant. I nursed it until I was sure it would flourish. It reminded me of the delicate Coral Belles I grew in Ohio. I felt confident enough to ignore it for several years, then I decided to take a hunk out and balance my rosebush by having another firecracker plant on the other side. That took. Oh, I was in my glory! I ignored them for a few more years, and then I discovered I couldn’t find my big signature rock and rosebush. Where were my swamp lilies? The firecrackers had spread and were growing five and six feet tall, covering the front of my garage. I was soon digging and pulling up those running roots along with the bulbs of my swamp lilies. I piled the bulbs in my wheelbarrow to plant later, as I put all the runners I could get up, out at the horticulture waste pile. I hacked and chopped the long streamers down to manageable size. I still have plenty but there is garden space to plants some hibiscus in front now. Both the Cigar plant and the Fountain firecrackers attract Butterflies and hummingbirds. Great additions to any garden.
Native to Mexico and called a sub-shrub, Russelia equisetiformis is hardy to zones 9 thru 11. They do best in foundation planters, cascading down the walls, to help hold the soil on hillside plantings, and to create mass border plantings. Their care takes full sun, any kind of soil, you just need it to be well drained; and they are highly drought and salt tolerant. I found a yellow variety about six years ago. I see them available occasionally. I do know there is a white variety in Hawaii. They are an aggressive, spreading plant, having escaped cultivation and been found forming thickets along side roads and embankments. With maintenance though, you can’t beat a tough plant that lights up the landscape with fireworks!
It’s summertime, so have a booming, blooming, bang up summer. Stay safe. HAPPY 4th OF JULY!
Joyce Comingore-Master Gardener-Past-President of the James E Hendry Chapter of the American Hibiscus Society, National Board Member, -member of the Garden Club of Cape Coral