What it is
Standing Cypress (Ipomopsis rubra) is in the Polemoniaceae family. A tall native biennial with feathery foliage and a spire of red tubular flowers that hummingbirds chase.
How to grow it
It wants full sun, water it low, and give it sandy, well-drained soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0–7.5. Space plants about 12 in apart. Expect roughly Blooms 2nd year. Native biennial.
How it's used
Standing Cypress is used: ornamental; pollinator.
🔎 How to identify it
- Ferny thread-like foliage
- Tall single spike
- Red trumpet flowers
Not for eating
How to grow & propagate standing cypress
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate standing cypress
Standing Cypress is grown from seed. Start it in the season it favors, keep the seedbed evenly moist until it's up, and thin to give each plant room to size up.
Growing standing cypress in Texas
Give it full sun and sandy, well-drained soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
Time your planting to our long warm season and watch the frost dates at both ends; the live weather tool on this site is built for exactly that.
Once it's rooted in, this is a low-water plant — overwatering does more harm than drought here. Water deeply to establish, then back off and let it prove how tough it is.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly blooms 2nd year before you're harvesting.
Making more for free
If you want more, let your healthiest plants mature fully and collect the seed once it's dry on the plant — then store it somewhere cool, dark, and dry until next season.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.