Start a Conversation with Bat-faced Cuphea

Cuphea llavea, commonly called Bat-faced Cuphea, is a real conversation starter. It has lance-shaped green leaves and tubular flowers topped with what look much like purple "bat faces" with bright red "ears." It is one of the most interesting blooms I have seen:

I discovered this plant earlier this year at another gardener's home and soon found three for my own garden. This is a native perennial in Mexico and Central America, but it usually grows as an annual below USDA hardiness zone 10. In zones 8-9, it sometimes will survive the winter if well mulched, dying down at frost, then returning with warmer spring temperatures. It can grow in the ground or in a pot. If in a pot, it may be overwintered inside by a bright window.

Cuphea blooms over a long season, from late spring till frost. The bat faces are small but are produced in abundance and do not need to be deadheaded.
There are now cultivars that produce blooms other than red, such as pink, purple and white. The nectar-rich blooms are very attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds.

Plant Bat-faced Cuphea in full sun in well-draining, rich, organic soil. In intensely hot regions it can take some afternoon shade. It should be watered regularly until the roots are established. After that it is fairly drought tolerant.

It can grow up to two feet tall by three feet wide. When it is about ten inches tall or when it becomes leggy, the plant may be pinched or sheared back to produce a bushier, more floriferous plant. I definitely recommend this. Mine have become leggy, producing blooms mostly at the end of the stem. Mine are getting pinched this week! Fertilize monthly with a balanced fertilizer, or use a slow-release fertilizer in spring.

Summer Scenes in the Garden

Summer is here, and the deep greening of the garden has begun. A few perennials and annuals celebrate our heat and humidity and provide splashes of color, but these hot months are all about foliage in its myriad forms and variegations. 

First, some color: This tropical hibiscus is so beautiful that I plan to bring it inside later to overwinter. For now it sits on our patio, and I have a good view of it from our kitchen and dining room.

Here are a few more June blooms:The large top photo is from my new pollinator garden, with purple Veronica and perennial Helenium. Do you see the bee? Small photos left to right: Hummingbird plant, Dicliptera suberecta, is also known as Uruguayan firecracker plant; One of the very best yellow reblooming daylilies is Hemerocallis 'Going Bananas'; Hydrangea quercifolia 'Snowflake' has double blooms, unlike the common oak leaf hydrangea, which has single blooms; 'Anthony Waterer' Spirea has May - June blooms but will produce more flowers if spent blooms are removed.

When the day is nearly done - but not quite - the sun sends shafts of light through the woodland garden. It is my favorite time of the day. Sparks flash under and over and through the foliage; and like a soul lifted out of darkness, the garden is transformed.

Here are closer views of some of the woodland plants:Clockwise from top left: Breynia disticha is called Snow on the Mountain bush and also Snowbush. It is not hardy in my area. It is in a pot, and I will bring it inside for winter; Hosta 'Rhino Hide'; Cercis canadensis 'Whitewater' is a weeping variegated redbud tree; Zantedeschia albomaculata, or White Spotted Leaf Calla Lily; Fatsia 'Spider's Web'; Bird's nest fern (Asplenium nidus) is another plant in my garden that is not hardy. It is in a pot so I can bring it in for winter.

Clockwise from top left: Peacock moss (Selaginella uncinata) and Athyrium filix-femina, commonly called lady fern, grow next to a mossy rock; A close-up of the Peacock moss; Native Trillium and Autumn Fern (Dryopteris erythrosora);Hostas are beginning to bloom - I don't remember the name of this one!

Finally, here is a Daddy Longlegs, stretched out, taking it easy on a hosta leaf. This non-venomous insect has 6 legs and is not a true spider:

Happy Gardening!