Terri:

I grow three in a clump in Chuluota. They get about ten feet but are definitely not trees - they are shrubs. Whn we get a hard freeze they die back but come back. When we do not I prune them hard each Spring because otherwise they getting leggy and sparse. Below is a pic - they are in the background of that bed. The bright orange in the front is lion's tail. The second pic they are to the left in the bed behind the red orchid. Mine are about 10' tall and wider. Not only hummers but butterflies and birds love them too. I think they rate an A+.

Anita

Thanks for the information and beautiful pictures. Yours look great! 10 feet might work for her yard. I'll have to check it out when I'm up there again. I saw one once that was trimmed into a small tree, but that was in Guatemala (we went to see Mayan ruins). It was interesing that there were areas of Guatemala that looked just like Florida.

I live about an hour from Orlando and I have 12 Finish in my yard. 10 as a hedge, 1 pruned into a tree and one dwarf in my butterfly garden. My tree isn't very very big yet, however, my brother in law is several trees in his yard and his are about 12ft tall. Their canopy is approx. 6-8ft across.

I have many firebushes, some the so-called "native" and others that are called "dwarf." Some of the ones that I have are well over 15 ft, approaching 20. The hummers and the butterflies and other birds really like these plants. Beware, however, that they are garden thugs. They spread through roots and by seeds. I have a very large yard and they have completely taken over parts of it. I'm alright with that because they are so beneficial to pollinators. However, they will spread wide and far.

I agree with what Anita said above; they are really bushes. They will grow very wide and keep going.

A very pretty small tree that also attracts butterflies and hummingbirds is what we call "Yellow Bells." It's botanical name is Tecoma stans var. angustata. It grows to be about ten to 15 ft, has beautiful yellow flowers, and does very well in my yard which is about 20 miles west of Orlando. This is a small tree, not a bush and it is very well behaved and very pretty.

Height depends on that winter. I live near the coast north of Orlando but not much colder and some years they have died back but recently they stopped dying back so they do get taller now (older one in shade is about 8'-9' maybe after a mild winter and no pruning) but I still would put something different in a spot if I wanted something in 15' range.

Odd that others have problems with them sprouting more, they're notoriously difficult to propagate from seed from what I've read. Also, I've had mine for years and they have yet to spread -- I wish they would, though!

A native small tree that has red tubular flowers (and interesting foliage in my opinion) is Red Buckeye but since that's the Southern edge of its native range, it's probably best if it got some shade (partial sun). Cherokee bean is similar but it's more definitely a shade plant and much harder to find.

Bottlebrush/Callistemon, while not-native are Florida friendly, bloom all year like firebush do and are guaranteed to get the size you want and definitely are attractive to hummingbirds (though hummers favor my firebush over my neighbor's bottlebrush :P). I've seen some get bigger than 15' but they were very old and never trimmed, the plants are slow-growing so don't let their biggest heights scare you basically.

Otherwise, I'd just put a small or slow-growing useful tree there like a nice citrus or dwarf fig and then put some firebushes around/underneath it and keep them trimmed until it gets tall enough. Firebushes are quite shade tolerant and still bloom plenty so planting them underneath a small tree would not be detrimental to them at all.

Also with firebush it's best to buy the orange kind (has a reddish tint to leaves usually), not the yellow kind. Yellow one is not native to Florida.

Edit: the height of hibiscus in your area can give you an idea of max height of firebushes since they roughly die back at same temperature where I live (aka not last "winter"). In Costa Rica I see hibiscus that are 15+ feet tall making giant screens but that height is impossible here due to it only being subtropical, not tropical.