You don't say when the plant bloomed. If it bloomed in late summer through early fall, what you may have is a cardinal flower--Lobellia cardinalis. There are both dark leaved and green leaved varities. Did it look like this?

KimKa

Here is a link that might be useful: Cardinal flower

I can't see a picture Kim, but yes, it did bloom in the fall,sorry I don't have much info.Iwill google Lobellia cardinalis,thanks
cAROL

That was exactly my thought, cardinal flower.

There are red penstemons. My neighbor has one and shared her seeds with me to ws this winter. I believe it blooms earlier than fall. Could it be hummingbird salvia?

OMGosh,I took a picture of it, and thought I deleated it.
Can I send the picture to one of you, and you post it for me, I don't remember how, plus, I have a new camera, and need to relearn photo bucket.Any takers?
Thank you so much.
cAROL

cAROL - email the picture to me as an attachment--don't paste it in the body of the email message. I'll see if I can upload it for you.
Eileen

Does it look like either of these? The first is standing cypress and the other two are penstemon barbatus coccineus. You can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

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4-5 ft. tall penstemon? The only one I could think of that might be that tall would be a penstemon digitalis - the most common variety of that is Husker's Red, but I don't recall the flowers being red - seems to me they were white, and the foliage has a reddish tinge to it.

Good luck!

Eileen,I have tryed sending you a few pictures, it won't go through.
I will try something else tomorrow, gurrrrrrrrrrr,sometimes, I Hate Computers!
cAROL

Lobelia cardinalis?

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Karen

I am so glad you posted that picture karen, I entertained the idea of trying to find where you posted it before. I like how you read my mind, lol.

Karen, I am pretty sure that is it.I will try to post a pic. ,just to be certain though.So, is this an annual?
cAROL

No, it's perennial. The one in my picture is in it's 4th or 5th year. Starts blooming in the 2nd year.

Karen

I LOVE Karen's photos!!

Thanks. My coleus were wonderful this year. It helped that they got some afternoon shade from my maple tree. Most other things didn't do so well in the excessive heat and drought this summer. My back yard was a mess from about late July or August. I expect to lose a lot of plants.

I do like the lobelia cardinalis a lot. And the hummers do too.

Karen

Cardinal flower was my first guess too.

Karen, thanks for sharing the picture again. It is just beautiful. Did you save seeds from any of the coleus? I am overwintering some I had this year as an experiment, but I didn't get any of the dark burgundy ones, that would match my front door.

You have a great eye for design, which I lack. I have to have my daughter help me, who knows nothing about plants, but has a designers eye. We're a great team!

I brought in a Kong coleus and I think I will get some seeds from that, hopefully, if you would like to do a trade.

No, Bev, I didn't save any seeds. I started a few versa series from seed last year, didn't care for them. I just find the ones started from cuttings much better plants.

Most of my coleus are vegetative ones, which rarely flower. If they try, I pinch them back, removing the flower. I don't allow them to flower. Some folks say removing flowers makes for a healthier coleus which will put it's energy into maintaining the pretty foliage.

Karen

Bev,

I did save seeds from my indoor grown Coleus treated as houseplants. The one is the dark burgundy with green margins and the other Coleus has much more green (a brighter/lighter green) at the margins/stems with burgundy center. I didn't separate the seeds though so it would be a mix of the two if you are interested. The seeds were gathered just a few weeks ago.

Vera

Vera, thanks for the offer, sending you an email.