Bouvardia ternifolia Richard Lynch Cut the shrub back hard

Cut the shrub back hard in spring once new growth shows

a hot bank

The willow-like leaves

where the upright evergreen frame holds the year and the bright pink flowers light the cool months against dark

in colder spots the plant makes a fragrant container specimen to shelter through winter

Bouvardia ternifolia Richard Lynch Cut the shrub back hardBouvardia ternifolia, the firecracker bush, is a compact, heat loving shrub of the southwestern United States and Mexico, hung from late spring to frost with clusters of long, slender, scarlet red tubular flowers. Few plants pull hummingbirds in like this one: the bright tubes are pitched exactly for their bills, and the bloom keeps coming through the hottest months when little else holds color. Whorls of narrow leaves clothe a tidy, two to three foot