Group/Class:  Totally Tempted® Series

Brand:  Proven Winners

Description:

Small, well branched shrub or subshrub presents unusual watermelon-red tubular flowers with purple calyces; great for bedding, shrub borders, and containers; continuous blooming from spring to fall; great for attracting pollinators; self-cleaning

Ornamental Features

Totally Tempted® Watermelon Wine™ Cuphea features showy red tubular flowers with purple calyces along the branches from mid spring to mid fall. It has green evergreen foliage. The fuzzy pointy leaves remain green throughout the winter.

Landscape Attributes

Totally Tempted® Watermelon Wine™ Cuphea is a multi-stemmed evergreen shrub with an upright spreading habit of growth. Its average texture blends into the landscape, but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance shrub, and is best cleaned up in early spring before it resumes active growth for the season. It is a good choice for attracting butterflies and hummingbirds to your yard. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Totally Tempted® Watermelon Wine™ Cuphea is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Totally Tempted® Watermelon Wine™ Cuphea will grow to be about 12 inches tall at maturity extending to 16 inches tall with the flowers, with a spread of 14 inches. When grown in masses or used as a bedding plant, individual plants should be spaced approximately 12 inches apart. It tends to fill out right to the ground and therefore doesn't necessarily require facer plants in front. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 10 years.

This shrub does best in full sun to partial shade. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It may require supplemental watering during periods of drought or extended heat. To help this plant achive its best flowering performance, periodically apply a flower-boosting fertilizer from early spring through into the active growing season. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone in winter to protect it in exposed locations or colder microclimates. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.

Totally Tempted® Watermelon Wine™ Cuphea makes a fine choice for the outdoor landscape, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. It is often used as a 'filler' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination, providing a mass of flowers against which the larger thriller plants stand out. Note that when grown in a container, it may not perform exactly as indicated on the tag - this is to be expected. Also note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.