Cuphea

This year we tried a new border planting for our front walkway that leads to the BioWorks Butterfly Garden. Mexican Heather (Cuphea hyssopifolia var. Allyson) and Brazillian White Heather (Cuphea hyssopifolia var. Brazilian White) make a nice smooth and neat stripes of color to line the sidewalk.

Mexican Heather blooms continuously throughout the year and is a great groundcover, border plant and container plant. The tiny flowers are attractive to bees and small butterflies like Skippers, Ceranus Blues and White Peacocks. These two cultivars are low maintenance and in our gardens they have looked great from Spring straight through now in the late Fall. We are looking forward to seeing how it performs this Winter. If it does well we will probably extend this bed because it looks so fantastic at our front entrance.

Native from Mexico to Guatamala, Mexican Heather is hardy from zones 9 through 11 and does not tolerate cold well. Cold weather areas can use Mexican Heather as an annual but in more tropical climates it will survive as a perennial. The purple ‘Lavender’ Allyson’ is a great, low spreading shrub with a fern-like habit while the Brazilian White has a more upright and compact habit.

Learn more about this species:

• Floridata: Cuphea hyssopifolia