 |
Callirhoe involucrata |
 |
Common name |
poppy mallow; winecups |
Family |
malvaceae |
Life cycle |
perennial |
Flowers |
deep purple (June) |
Size |
sprawler |
Light |
sun |
Cultural notes |
ordinary garden soil |
From seed  |
nick, germinate at room temperature detailed seed-starting info below
|
Seed ripens | late August |
I love the way this peeks through the plants surrounding it: its growth pattern is sprawling, such that one planted by itself won't exceed 6" or so in height - but plant it next to taller companions, and it lifts itself to greater heights. It doesn't so much climb as support itself on its neighbors. That's why I have a hard time getting a good whole-plant photo: it's spread out, with its marvellous flowers popping out here and there.
We also established this plant in our Texas garden, and found it to be one of the very few plants that don't mind living in the mulched circles surrounding our front-yard live oaks.
|
| For some reason, I'm always tickled by the frumpy, ground-hugging seedlings. They're slow to grow in their first year. |
|
| Our Texas specimen, blooming earlier here (late April) |
|
In our garden, this plant grows in the following area: houston front yard About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Callirhoe involucrata
Visitors to this page have left the following commentsVera Moore | Apr 03, 2009 | Beautiful picture :)
Sounds like a great candidate for winter sowing! I have seeds and believe I will try them next year; not enough cold weather left for proper stratification.
|
Mary Ann - maryann@wlss.net | Jun 08, 2009 | I really a question about winecups (callirhoe involucrata). If it is sprawling a little too far can I prune it back without damaging the plant?
Thanks in advance for the help. Cutting wayward trailing stem back won't hurt the plant a bit. |
mel jones | Oct 22, 2010 | I live in GA and I do not see any place where this plant is grown in GA. Is it possible? You're at the southernmost region where this plant is likely to thrive - but yes, I think it should be possible. |
Claudia | Jul 29, 2011 | It looks really pretty, and I'm tempted to try it out. Wikipedia says that Callirhoe has a large tap root; is it hard to get rid of if I decide I don't want it any more? As it's a wildflower, does it self-seed prolifically? Thank-you! The taproot just makes it difficult to transplant, I don't think it would be difficult to kill if you tried (I've not been tempted to do so :-). While collected seeds aren't too difficult to germinate, I've never had volunteers pop up – but that may be different in your climate. In any case, I wouldn't expect rampant seeding. |
Nancy B | Sep 02, 2017 | I live in Colorado on the front range, and my winecups are aggressive re-seeders. Every spring I have more than a dozen of two little starters to give friends. This is out of a 15 x 20 groundcover area. |
Susan M. | Apr 06, 2018 | I live in Atlanta, and we have one winecup in our small front yard (now a cottage garden). The winecup loves it here. Every summer it sprawls out all over everything around it; it's nearly choked out a nearby Phlox subulata 'Scarlet Flame,' although the tall bearded irises a few inches away are impervious to it. (It seems to be a matter height.) But each winter it retreats to its neat mound. It has not reseeded, and it has put out only one offset, which we're going to try to transplant. It's a lovely plant. It flowers prolifically from early summer into winter, and the foliage is gorgeous all year long here. We're going to try trimming it back next summer when it tries to take over. |
Valerie | Jun 02, 2020 | I love the seedling too! |
Sue Hayden | Jul 13, 2020 | How can you nick the seeds. They are so tiny. I scarify them by rubbing between two layers of sandpaper |
- Seed from '01 JLH order. Soaked 24hr, baggy 75F (22%G)
- Same seed as above. Dehulled seed - more than 50% empty. Nicked/soaked. Baggy 70F (20%G, 4-14d)
- Seed from '04 garden. Dehulled. Baggy 70F (30%G, 5-42d) - nicked (7%G, 14d)
- Seed from '07 garden. Scissor-snipped husks, thereby crudely scarifying inner seed. Baggy 70F (45%G, 7-21d)
- Seed from '08 garden. Scissor-snipped husks. Baggy 70F (35d; 30%G, 8-21d) - dehusked/sandpapered a few - 70F (20%G, 10-22d)
- Seed from '09 garden. Sandpapered the husked seeds, during which a few lost their husks. Baggy 70F (27%G, 7-40d)
- Same seed as above. Sandpapered, baggy 70F (20%G, 6-46d, with additional scarification).
Also var. tenuissima from HPS/MAG '13/'14 exchange. Sandpapered, baggy 70F (25%G, 5d)
- Same seed as above. Sandpapered, baggy 70F (17%G, 5-21d)
- Seed from NARGS '17/'18 exchange. Sandpapered some, baggy 70F (a few G, 7-10d)
Seeds inside the wedge-shaped hulls are dark, kidney-shaped. Removing hulls is a slow, painful task - probably easier to sow an excess, to deal with the low germination rate. Seeds dehusked and scarified do tend to germinate within a few days.
I welcome comments about my web pages; feel free to use the form below to
leave feedback about this particular page. For the benefit of other visitors
to these pages, I will list any relevant comments you leave, and if
appropriate, I will update my page to correct mis-information. Faced with an
ever-increasing onslaught of spam, I'm forced to discard any comments including
html markups. Please submit your comment as plain text. If you have a
comment about the website as a whole, please leave it in my
guestbook. If you
have a question that needs a personal response, please
e-mail me.
Last modified:
April 24, 2022
Contact me
|