The Lazy Gardener

Gardening with Brenda Beust Smith

Firespike — a Must-Have Plant



Firespike is one of my favorite plants in my garden, even when it’s not in bloom.

(Lest your eyebrows are rising too high, no, that is not my garden pictured in the top photo. It’s St. Anthony’s Garden, behind St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. But that hummer on photo above is in my firespike!)

Firespike is a great butterfly-and-hummer attractors in addition to being one of our most fail-safe plants. It was a bit late to bloom this year (in my yard, anyway) probably due to the extreme cold last winter.

Usually it starts in mid-summer and lasts until the first heavy freeze. But, hey, it’s alive, has had lovely foliage all summer and hopefully will now draw some of those wintering-over hummers reader Beverly Logan is reports she’s seeing in her yard. (I’m so jealous!)

When we took our first (and only) trip to Hawaii, I was looking forward to all the gorgeous gardens. But turned out what really boggled my mind was seeing so many firespikes growing wild all over the islands, it seemed.

Nothing, of course, is “native” to Hawaii. These hailed originally from South America. Odontonema strictum (also known as cardinal guard and scarlet flame) is an evergreen there. Mine usually die back in most — but not all — winters and return even fuller in spring.

Firespikes aren’t new to us, but they also still aren’t used as much in home gardens as they should be. They can take partial sun to full shade.

The lush, tropical foliage is beautiful even when not in bloom. Leaf stalks reach four to five feet (taller in more shade) with spikes of fire-engine red “fingers” summer through late fall most of the time. It makes a great background planting for lower-growing shrubs. (Also comes in pink and purple.)

I find it grows well in just about any soil and it obviously can take both our heat and cold. Best of all, when it’s thirsty, it wilts, unlike those plants that just up and die with no warning whatsoever. If it gets too big, whack of the tops to make it shorter and wider. Or whack off side shoots to make it taller and skinnier.

Stick those cuttings in the ground. They root easily almost any time of year (although fall and spring are the best times). Strip off all the leaves first, leaving only a small cluster at the top. Hopefully a root will sprout from every node where a leaf sprouted above ground, so bury as many of those nodes as possible.

Do you know where Burkina Faso is? It’s an African country and there Odontonema strictum is used to treat hypertension. This is interesting because now it’s being studied as a possible treatment for high blood pressure. I guess it’s native to other places than Central America, altho that’s the one usually listed.

Who else would tell you these things?

UPDATE: Ironically, just as I was winding up this article, a notice came in about a private plant sale that will include both red and purple firespikes. Master Gardener Mike Burnett’s collection of rare and unusual varieties of aroids, vines, palms, cycads, crinums, bamboo, bromeliads, etc., will be offered Saturday, Nov. 13, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at 5701 Carew, Houston, TX 77074.

If you have questions, contact Mike’s good friend Jerry Seymore (of Jerry’s Jungle Garden) at 832-978-5358. Delivery of large quantities may be arranged.

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The Lazy Gardener

8 Responses

  1. Notcho Delight says:

    A few Fire Spikes go along way. E-VAH-SIVE. Donno

    what happened to the Crype Mertle kingdom. Seems this was another sad sad year for blooms. No big

    splashes of color. Just a light dusting. Ever since

    Ike, it’s been a dull season for color offered by

    the CM. My imagination ?

  2. Sarah says:

    Deer like fire spikes as much as you do.

  3. RKE says:

    I have noticed the same thing since Ike with the crype mertles in my neighborhood…

  4. Energy Moron says:

    These plants are indestructible. A work crew had to dig up around the firespike in the back yard in early August. They threw the plants aside.

    I replanted them, watered them once (and you know what the last few months have been like with heat and water!), and they are now blooming away.

  5. CitizenJane says:

    Oh yeah. I have a BIG plant which I got when my sister-in-law’s house was being demolished for reconstruction. She said “take anything,” so I rather half-heartedly dug some firespike up and let it sit around (maybe in a bucket) a few days before planting it. Didn’t plant it well, didn’t water it much, but it was still beautiful, and blooms even in pretty shady spots.

  6. Sue Orwig says:

    The purplish pink ones are coming into bloom now in time for wintering hummingbirds and the lavender ones come into bloom in December. Hummers love all of them.

    Sue Orwig


  8. Walk :
