Lysimachia 'Firecracker'


Dean and Barbara:

I have the lysimachia that has been discussed over the last few days.  Let
me give you another perspective on what I do to keep it behaving, because
it is one of my favorite plants (I love the color of the leaves).

First, it will spread for me.  Not overly so like other lysimachias, but it
does seem to like the amended clay that it's in.  It can be difficult to
pull at times, so I'll do it after a rain which makes it a little easier.
It is growing in full sun, but hasn't lost the leaf color.  I will agree
with Dean's color description, which is why I bought it along with
similarly colored heucheras to place along the front of my borders here and
there for a color break.

Because it is in the front of the border, I will pinch back the plant twice
early in the season.  I'll wait until it gets about 10" tall and will pinch
back the growing stems.  It'll get the same treatment about three weeks
later so I'll end up with a plant about 12" tall, but very full and bushy.
Everyone who sees it thinks it's a shrub, like the smoke bush (another
burgundy-leaved lovely).  As a result of this pinching, I won't see a lot
of those yellow flowers.  I don't mind them though, because the effect
against the burgundy is pretty special to me.

For some reason I hardly see any green leaves on my plant, so I can't say
that I have the same experience as the two of you.  Mine consistently stays
burgundy.  This plant requires no extra watering or fertilizing.  It gets
my annual spring dressing of horse manure and that's it.

What do you guys have growing with your lysimachia?  Right now, I have a
dark-leaved dahlia that is a deep, blood red ('Bishop of Llandaff' -- if I
spelled it correctly) near it, artemisia 'Valerie Finnis', and a boltonia
that looks like it's forming buds (way, way too early).  It's an OK combo,
but I feel like I could do the plant better justice.

Val in KY
zone 6a

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