Featured Plant

The delicate flowers of cupheas are everywhere in the Garden. In one bend of the path at Bed 14A there are three different varieties of this stunning shrub. It is no wonder that plant collectors, including our own Dr. Don Mahoney, were mesmerized by the variety and colors of cupheas they found from central and eastern North America to Brazil and northern Argentina, as well as islands in the Caribbean. Spreading 3 to 4 feet and just as high, they are covered with hundreds of flowers for many months of the year. Perhaps 250 species, including hybrids, exist in brilliant colors of scarlet, blue, pink, and purple, with names such as Cuphea ignea 'Star Fire' and C. micropetala 'Candy Corn'. One hybrid has the dashing name C. llavea 'Flamenco Samba'. 

The combination of the colorful, tubular calyx with modified petals at its tip in contrasting colors and shapes, depending on the species, make cuphea flowers unusual. Cuphea nudicostata from Chiapas, Mexico has a red calyx with two deeper scarlet petals in the shape of ear lobes. Cuphea petals are often prominent and take different whimsical shapes. One needs a magnifying glass to see what nature has created to intrigue butterflies and hummingbirds into doing their "work" as pollinators.