I found this Cuphea at a local nursery this spring and planted in a pot on my back patio for the hummingbirds. It is the variety called 'Tiny Mice'. The flowers are a spectacular combo of blue and red, and very, very floriferous, but I have only seen one visit by a hummingbird. Tearing open a flower shows very little nectar, so not sure it is so great for attracting hummingbirds. My second year failing with this group of plants. I have never seen the variety 'David Verity' offered here before, but did grow it when I lived in NY where it was visited by Ruby-throats. Seems that some of these more colorful cultivars like 'Tiny Mice' lack in the nectar department.

Here are some pics.



and



Jeff

I have grown several of these cupheas over the last two years. Now I have one called 'Firecracker'. IMHO, these seem to be mostly ornamental. They do make very pretty specimens, but I have seldom seen hummers use them. The true favorites here seem to be David Verity, Schumanii and micropetala.

Priya
Zone 7, Maryland

Jeff, your plant appears to be a cultivar of Cuphea llavea. There are numerous cultivars, most with rather silly common names. In the past, several members have sworn by them as being superb hummer plants, but at my place, they get little action.

I have investigated the nectar content and quality. Sometimes, I find a lot of 30% nectar but at other times, the flowers seem dry. I have noticed that the ovary is fairly large and the nectar is protected behind the ovary, so the hummers have to force their bills deep into the flower to harvest the sweet stuff.

Even though they are not super hummer attractors, I usually keep 1 or 2 Cuphea llavea. However, I don't count on them as being very useful.

As for Cuphea 'David Verity', there are several internet sources.

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Nancy L Newfield
Casa Colibrí
Metairie, Louisiana USA
USDA Zone 9

Thanks for the replies. I did have another variety of Cuphea llavea last year with much larger petals giving it a more bat like face. Never saw a hummer visit it. Must be these hybrids. I did not the large ovary when I tore open a flower to view for nectar. Aside from the nice blooming display, looks like I might pass on these next year....maybe.

Thanks.

Jeff

Hi Jeff, it's always interesting to see how other's will react to a certain flower...I am not normally a Home Deport kind of shopper but this spring/summer was a DIY Home Improvement kind of year and so there was no time to really visit my regular nurseries or do any real gardening....Anyways, I picked up a similar cuphea, I think it was Rumba or something like that, my birds used it but it may have been because there wasn't much else available, who knows?? In my 3 favorite local nurseries, David Verity wasn't available this year, bummer...


Ruth
Everett, WA
Zone 8

Beautiful capture, Ruth. I'm sure gonna miss our Rufous when they go south again. I have 1 regular who competes with 2-3 Anna's for the bounty of my hummer garden.

Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Jeff,

I grew Cuphea llavea called BATFACED that looked like yours last year. Sorry but the hummers ignores it. This year I tried Proven Winners Flamenco Cha Cha. Nice plant but absolutely NO HUMMER action on it.

Pam NJ 6B

Great capture, Ruth. That looks like the Cuphea I had last year. Glad to see your hummers use. I have one Rufous, 2 Calliope and 1 Black-chinned that I see fairly regulary (probably additional migrants passing through too) and no one seems to like the Cuphea. Of course, they also have Agastache, Monarda, Zauschenaria, Red-hot Pokers, and Salvias to choose from too. Last year the aphids really hit the Cuphea, this year it isn't touched...different variety maybe the reason? Hmmm. I keep looking at the Cuphea Tiny Mice and am impressed with the color and floral display, so it definitely isn't a disappointment in that regard, just wish the hummers would have used it. Oh well.

Thanks everyone.

Jeff

They never grew well for me and after a couple of years I gave up. There is no reason to feel guilty about growing plants that aren't used by hummingbirds. If we are to sustain our own efforts over time we need to grow things to please us too and some of those are bound to have other qualities.

You are oh so right, Ward. In addition to all the hummer plants, I have a modest collection of culinary herbs and some chili peppers. I can't imagine preparing a meal without collecting fresh green leaves from the heirloom Laurus nobilis [French Bay Leaf] or plucking a few red, hot peppers to spice up a posole casserole. These are gifts of the earth that make life possible!

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Nancy L Newfield
Casa Colibrí
Metairie, Louisiana USA
USDA Zone 9

Jeff:

It just so happens that I came across a cultivar of C. lavea today that looks exactly like your pictures, and there was an Anna's Hummingbird spending a lot of time visiting every blossom on the plant. I am in California visiting my folks, and was out on a walk in the neighborhood when I spotted it. I enjoy going on walks here and seeing what homeowners around here have planted that attract the many Anna's hummers hereabouts.

Donald


Zone 4 Red Wing MN

Yeah Patrick, I get a kick out of the Rufous while they're here that's for sure ...that's also intersting about your 1 Rufous fighting with 2 to 3 Annas because over here at my place, the Rufous outnumber the Annas 10 to 1...I have a strange feeling the Rufous may be leaving pretty soon by the way, have you noticed how much the leaves have turned color probably from the uncharacteristic heat wave and it's not even the end of August??

Jeff, I was going to say before, the Tiny-Mice type cupheas are pretty and they hold their color better than a lot of other flowers but with all the vareity of other plants you have there I can see why it gets overlooked...I would love it if I had Black-chinned, Rufous and Calliope at my feeders but I am lucky enough to see them when I visit my family in Eastern Wa...By the way Jeff, I meant to ask you, did your Zauschenaria over-winter? And also, what about your Salvia penstemonoides overwinter sucessfully or did you start it from seed? I don't know if you remember but you sent those seeds and I even got them started easily enough but being busy with all the work on the house, I killed all of them by forgetting to water...aghhhh...

Ruth
Everett, WA
Zone 8

Hi Ruth,

My Zauschenaria garettii overwintered well so I got another one this spring. I saw two Calliope's the other day fighting over visiting rights to them. I lost one of my Salvia penstemonoides this winter but the other one came back, but is smaller than last year and just starting to bloom. I have had them overwinter successfully for three winters, guess last years hard, cold, snowy winter did one of them in.

Sorry you lost your Savlias...I would offer to save you more seeds, but not sure I will get any this year. If I do, I will let you know.

Jeff