If you like a lot of color in your garden during July and August, plant the standing cypress. Its botanical name is Ipomopsis rubra. The panicles of striking, flame colored flowers are borne on straight stems above fine, feathery foliage similar to that of cosmos.
They grow in a pyramid shape, two or three feet tall, but may be pinched out to form a bush shape. They thrive in any good garden soil, but they do equally as well in sandy ground and need little, if any, extra water from the hose. No pest or disease seems to bother this plant. The spring planted seedlings don’t mind cold winters, even without any protection.
Standing cypress makes a striking companion plant for hemerocallis especially soft yellow varieties. Ipomopsis rubra is also lovely nodding above marguerites, blue larkspur with white Shasta daisies nearby, or in front of tiger lilies with a drift of white phlox below.
Here they start blooming in July, and if prevented from making seed pods, they will continue to bloom until frost. Once you grow this biennial (sometimes perennial) you will always want its lovely blossoms among your summer perennials.
Standing cypress reseeds itself abundantly, but never becomes a nuisance in the garden. The seedlings are easily transplanted.
