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Cuphea viscosissima |
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| Common name |
blue waxweed |
| Family |
lythraceae |
| Life cycle |
annual |
| Flowers |
purple (summer-fall) |
| Size |
12-24" |
| Light |
sun |
From seed  |
Germinates readily at room temperature. Self-seeds in our garden.
detailed seed-starting info below
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Herbaceous annual with tubular flowers borne on the ends of purplish stems, offset by broad lance-shaped leaves. All parts of the plant are covered with sticky hairs. The flowers, with the same general tube-with-ears shape as its genus-mate bat-face plant, are favored by hummingbirds and butterflies.
Blue waxweed hails from open woods and fields across a large swath of the eastern United States, and is one of the only members of its genus occurring outside of (sub)tropical regions. It is more of a wildflower than a garden denizen, but we'll see how it does in our garden. Our nursery-bought specimen started blooming in early June, and was still going strong by late September. It will reportedly self-seed in "suitable locations", so I guess our garden is suitable: we had quite a few volunteers emerge by early spring, with some coming into bloom by the middle of May.
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| | Not the tidiest plant, but I like the splashes of deep magenta |
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| | Seedlings blooming in mid-May |
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| | Forest of seedlings, early April |
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In our garden, this plant grows in the following area: left fence border About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Cuphea viscosissima
- Seed from '19 garden. Baggy 70F (60%G, 5-10d)
- Same seed as above. Baggy 70F (20%G, 5-12d)
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Last modified:
March 01, 2025
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