Cigar Plant, What Is It?
What is a cigar plant? An annual in most USDA plant hardiness zones, the cigar plant is a tender perennial. In other places is known as the firecracker plant or Mexican Cigar Plant.
It is a small, multi-stemmed shrub with vibrant red blooms that appears to explodes like in fireworks.
These small red flowers have black and white lips and a tubular shape similar to a conventional cigar.
It even has a white rim that gives the appearance as if it is the cigar that is lit, hence the common name.
The cigar plant flower grows in zones 9b-12 year-round but can grow as an annual in other areas.
When growing cigar plants as an annual in cooler zones, the blooms appear in summer. In the more tropical areas where it is hardy, cigar plants bloom off and on all year round.
How To Grow Cigar Plants
Botanically known as Cuphea ignea, cigar plant flowers bloom in the high sun to partial shade.
The cigar plant shrub mostly reaches not more than 24 inches (60 cm.) in height; however, some cigar plant information claims it can reach a height and spread all the way up to 3 feet (1 m.).
It usually remains in a neat, mounded clump. The flamboyant plant also appears to draw hummingbirds to the garden.
Cigar Plant Flower Care
Cigar plant caring involves growing cigar plants in the proper sort of soil and watering them well.
The reward will be rich blooms from the adequately positioned plant.
To grow a cigar plant, one will need porous and average soil that drains water well.
Whereas partially drought resistant, the cigar plant does best when it is watered in regular intervals.
Care of cigar plants often involves the pinching of leggy stems throughout the growing season.
When growing this plant in colder zones in a vase, try moving the cigar plant inside while winter lasts.
As you know now what a cigar plant is, perhaps it is time to start thinking of starting a cigar plant shrub in your garden.
Search for seeds online or at specialty plant outlets.
If you have a friend who already has this plant, try starting one from a small cutting.
Care of cigar plants is minimal; no pests or diseases are common.
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