Firecrackers

Summer is ending. September is still nice and my gardens are still looking great. We had an unusually rainy summer. In the 8 years we've been here, this monsoon season, which goes from Fourth of July through September, has been the wettest ever. A whole different Santa Fe experience.

I'm celebrating this nice end to summer with some firecracker action. Firecracker plants in pots, actually. 

I have two containers of two different cuphea plants. Cupheas are called firecracker plants because of their bright orange tubular flowers that explode out every which way.

This one in a white bowl is called 'Vermillionaire'.

Cuphea in a bowl sitting in a bed of thyme

You can see how the rocket shaped flowers remind one of firecrackers. It's also called cigar plant because the flowers look like cigars I guess.

Cuphea 'Vermillionaire' flowers

The second one is Cuphea 'David Verity' and it's more refined, if a plant exploding with tiny  orange missiles can be called refined. But there is something more elegant about its darker, glossier green foliage and more upright shape.

It's in a blue pot behind the deck.

Cuphea 'David Verity' behind the deck

The flowers look similar to the other cuphea, but somehow richer looking. You may not see the difference, but I do.

'David Verity' flowers

Both of these firecracker plants were healthy but small all summer. They took a long time to fill out and it is only now, as summer ends, that they look good. They are warm weather plants, needing hot, sunny summers and warm nights. 

We have hot afternoons and strong sun, but our nights at this elevation are cold and that holds tropicals and annuals back. But they do look nice now.

They are frost tender, so they won't last the winter. I'll bring 'David Verity' into the house over winter and see if stays happy enough that I can bring it back out, full sized, next spring so I won't have to go through the patient process of growing one to size again all next summer.

🧨

Until then, I am finally enjoying both these firecracker plants, finally full and exploding with color, and adored by the hummingbirds. 

I declare an end of summer celebration.