Russelia Sarmentosa.

is this rare, a perennial,good to grow a weed? I know nothing about it.

but thank you for the identification.

Can look spectacular (IMO) when everything is just right. That is-full-flowered, brilliant color, interesting cascading growth form. This is/was one of the southern species I toyed with the idea of trying to beat into submission up here as an annual, albeit an annual which had a large headstart in a warm greenhouse. Still haven't quite pulled the trigger on that idea. If it would work out perfectly, it would be great, but anything less than that would be unsatisfactory for what I'm envisioning.

Tell you what though-if I lived down there, I'd have some clumps of Russelia. I think they're great plants.

the 'cascading one' is the 'firecracker bush'. it is super easy to grow, i would think anywhere in the country. while it would die back in the cold, you could get a big plant going from a small rooted plant. Must be able to buy them online cheap someplace. I have it all over my yard. This new one is the puzzle that looks like has been solved:).

i've grown this plant for years. It looks sickly now...maybe I should give it some fertilizer every once in awhile! A nice butterfly and humming bird flower.

Good catch, poohbear. I saw "Russelia" and immediately jumped to Russelia equisetiformis. All my words were about that plant, not the one in this thread. I had a very friendly worker at one of Fort Myers' garden centers insist on giving me a sprig of Russelia e. one day a couple years ago. I told her no, no, I have to catch a plane, I have to get left off in freezing cold Milwaukee....etc.....but she would have none of it! Of course, by the time I got home, that poor little thing was beaten and battered. I let it try to root for a couple months but it was no go.

Saw Russelia equisetiformis gracing either side of a long driveway, next to a wet ditch, somewhere out in the wilds near Alva, FL. That's what did it for me......those plants looked perfect and were large cascading mounds. Since then, I've seen this plant all over S. Florida, and admittedly, it doesn't always look that good. But when in its prime, a real looker, IMO.

It can be cut to the ground and it comes back lus and full of g long stems,covered in the tiny blooms. The old stems do dry up and look like died brown stems,it can look like a bunch of hay ready to catch fire.

I have a big plot of it, and it came from a tiny 4-6in pot, it just spreads from under ground and or if a stem hits the ground and stays still long enough, it roots from a stem! But I think it has to be a live stem attached to a living plant. If you want a small root plug' of it ,a small plant of it, let me know, i might be able to ship it to you. When it isnt freezing cold for a long period of time. Priority mail only takes 2-4 days. How far up north are you? Milwaukee?

Thanks buddy. I'm in Appleton, about a half-hour's drive south of Green Bay.

You've indeed identified the key issues with the Russelia e. The cutting-back tech you describe sounds perfect. Like
I said, I saw plants that were amazingly beautiful, and I saw plants that looked as you describe-lol-as hay ready to catch fire! Let's talk again when it does warm up. I'm still somewhat interested in trying this plant-again, as starts from a warm greenhouse-in my job. Sure would be a unique look if I could get it to work.

Well if you have access to a greenhouse, you could grow this all year round, my plants are in full bloom nearly all year, looking at them right now, fountains of red stems. Let me know if/when you might like a rooted piece/plant, to grow up there, It grows fast the hotter it is, and in poor soil. So in a richer soil, like at a greenhouse, instead of the sand we have here, I can imagine it would grow/bloom VERY fast in that soil, and perfect conditions....that of a hothouse/greenhouse.

Thanks buddy. Perhaps I should explain myself, lol! So, I'm a pro horticulturist in a medium-sized city not too far from Green Bay. One of my main areas of responsibility is designing, installing, and maintaining our community's ornamental display beds, planters, etc. I'm always on the lookout for an unusual plant which nevertheless would perform well for us, as an "annual". Our basic program is to create plans in November of the preceding year, put the plant needs out for bids at the local growers, and then whichever company gets our order, they grow the stuff for us and we plant out in late May, when most frost danger is past. So I'm never looking to carry stuff over the winter. That would be hugely cost-prohibitive. So let's say the Russelia could in fact work for us. What we would do would be to place an order for X amount of plants, along with all the other species and cultivars we'd be growing. Then, in late may, outplant and maintain for the summer. Some examples of some fairly unusual "tropical" items I've worked with in the past are: Mexican flame vines, popcorn cassia (getting pretty common now), Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia), uh...I'm sure I'm forgetting some more. This in addition to all the usual stuff that is actually of tropical origin, but which has been used in the trade so much that nobody thinks of it that way anymore, like Impatiens, cannas, etc.

What i would like to do with the Russelia is just try one in my own garden at home and see if I could get decent performance out of it. The key issue with all of this is: How fast do the plants bulk up and how long to go into flowering mode. Probably the best success story we've had so far is the popcorn cassia-Cassia didymobotrya. Those things come out of the greenhouse maybe a foot tall or so, go into bloom almost immediately, and remain in flower all summer long, until freezing weather finally gets them. That's the kind of performance we can use. If something takes forever to get into its most colorful mode, then it's just taking up space that would be better filled by something else. So yeah, why don't we plan on you sending me a test sprig. It's actually warming up nicely already here, but I'm sure we'll be cold again, so maybe another couple of months to play it safe. Thanks much!

ok let me know