Firebush

  • Common name(s): Firebush, Hummingbird Bush, Scarlet Bush, and Redhead
  • Scientific Name: Hamelia patens
  • Family: RUBIACEAE
  • Origin: Native to American subtropics and tropics
  • Description: Large, soft-stemmed, multi-trunked, evergreen shrub. Grows up to 15 feet tall and 8 feet wide as a perennial shrub. Grows up to 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide as an annual shrub. Produces orange-red flowers throughout the year and small, black, glossy berries. Leaves are gray and green with pink veins and turn red in the fall.
  • Environment: Easy to grow and low maintenance. Grows best in full sun or shade, fertile to sandy, moist and well-drained soils. The shrub is pest and disease resistant, heat tolerant, and drought tolerant. Grows fast and propagates by seed cuttings or air layers. Flowers attract pollinators like hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees and the berries attract birds. Attacks of scales, mites, aphids, larvae, and moths are common.
  • Additional Information: Great as a specimen plant and the fruit is edible.
  • Location: A1
  • Sponsored by Bryan & Myrna Canin