Any of you grow firespike? Is it just me or is this the slowest growing plant known to man? Put mine in back in the spring and it is just now pushing a foot tall. It gets an abundance of water I'm certain. It looks very healthy, but geez!!! I fully expected it to be at least 4 feet tall by now.
dell

I would think it should have grown more than that.

I haven't figured this plant out yet. I have 5 of them in my yard. There are three in a partial sun area, with poor soil and little water that are doing great (just started blooming past week or so). I have two others planted in nutrient rich potting soil in full sun getting regular water, and they are barely growing and have yet to put up flower spikes.

I have lots of this plant, and it is a major HB attractor. While conditions here in my garden, in Costa Rica, it is both in full sun with no additional water at all and in partial shade with occasional watering. In the PS it is over 6' tall and constantly in bloom. In the full sun, the plants are newer but although shorter (2') they are all in full bloom, as well.
I cut the 'stalk' into 1' tall pieces and 'stick them directly into the soil' or in a pot to be transplanted later. Even these bear blooms, very quickly.

Dell, what is the scientific name of the plant you are growing as Firespike? Is it possible that the plant you are growing is not the same species as the Firespike [Odontonema strictum] some other people grow. Mine are huge, but all are several years old. Typically, they don't become well established the first year, but they usually become a few feet tall by fall.

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

Dell,

We were crazy enough to order this plant for our Wisconsin hummingbird garden about 8 years ago. We had several in the ground that bloomed towards the end of the season and the brilliant red flowers were dripping with nectar. If you can get it to bloom, it is a superb hummingbird plant. We still have one in a pot that we overwinter and actually use as a support for annual hummingbird vines. It's bloomed a few times inside the house during the winter, but has never bloomed outside unfortunately. You really have to grow this plant in the right climate and if you can attract winter hummers in a warm climate, it's a "must have" hummingbird plant. Like Nancy said, you have to make sure that you have the right plant. Please keep us posted.



Kathi and Michael Rock
Madison, Wisconsin
Zone 4/5

Hm, Nancy, you know, I never thought about that question. I bought it from the local botanical garden. I think, but can't swear to it because I am over 50, that I remember writing down the name he gave me and looking it up on line before I ever planted it and it was the name you said. He specifically recommended it to me for that particular spot because it gets shade in the afternoon and is intermittently drowned with an inch of water from run off when the neighbor waters their yard. (If I spoke Japlish I'd speak to them about adjusting their sprinkler heads>)
dell

Dell, took this photo today. Maybe you need to add something 'different' to your garden...

Oh, uh, hopefully we don't have those here! ha Well, I should know for sure what I have soon. Noticed this morning that the plant has some flower buds forming up.
dell

Dell,
I was thinking these past few days, on the fact that your plant, ..and mine.. Odontonema strictum has hardly grown. As mentioned, I have a few that are blooming but are about 2' tall but realized that even if the bloom is still 'good', it doesn't seen to get any new blooms 'unless' you remove the one already there. This in turn, will rapidly produce new sideshoots and new blooms quickly.

I have a bunch of firespikes. I plant more every year, because I have found that the hummers prefer them to virtually all other plants at this time of year. Right now I have no hummingbirds. The same thing happened last year--they left around mid-October and then at the end of the month more arrived from South Florida and then a few weeks later some Rufous arrived. Firespike was the favorite.

One of the best features of this plant is that it blooms in shade--even quite deep shade as long as it gets some indirect light. I stumbled upon a method to plant firespike a few years ago. I put a plant right next to an oak tree, meaning to move it eventually, but then forgot about it. The firespike sent down roots through the holes in the pot and just kept growing. It's now about eight feet tall and about as wide.

Since then I have planted three more in big pots next to other oaks. I made the holes in the bottom of the pot much larger, made sure the pot was on level ground and then added some slow release fertilizer. They are thriving.

Right now they are being visited by butterflies, but soon I hope the hummingbirds will come back and start enjoying them.

Well, my firespike still is really only about 2 feet tall. But it has a couple of gorgeous spikes of flowers on it. We still have at least 2 hummers as of today so hopefully it is getting some use. I've seen a hummer zipping low to the ground headed that direction, so maybe that's what he's headed for....can't see the plant from inside the house. Oh, and finally located the name of the plant....I actually wrote it down woohoo!...and it is the one we all seem to know as "firespike".
dell