There are some shrubs that have been in the yard back at home for some time now, and I have been wondering what they were the whole time (I just remembered to ask about them here). In the past I've spent hours using Google to try and figure out what it is, but so far nothing I have found is similar. The plant gets about one meter in height, and seems to bloom year round (but more vigorously in the spring and summer). The flowers grow in long clusters of at least 30 - 40, and start opening from the bottom flowers up. The blossoms are light yellow in color and are trumpet-shaped, and hold a lot of nectar at the base (needless to say, these plants are extremely popular among the local hummingbirds, who are the only ones that can reach it). The leaves are simply-shaped, serrated, and reach a length of about 10cm. I don't have any photos of the plant as I am not at home right now, but I did a quick sketch from memory (hopefully it's good enough for an identification):
Yes, it appears to be some variety of Phygelius aequalis. Thank you! Most of the information about them says they tend to be on the fragile side, but the ones at my house do not get any special care (besides watering and occasional fertilizing), and they are thriving. I guess the climates of central California and the plant's native South Africa are somewhat similar.
Yes, though central California is more prone to the occasional hard freeze (as many Californians discovered this last winter). If it came through that without damage, it should be OK with you.
See Sunset WESTERN GARDEN BOOK for climate zone mapping (and descriptions) of California climates and climate zone designations for Cape fuchsia.
I'm in zone 10 I believe, we have light freezes every year, but the average low temperatures are generally somewhere between 36 - 46 degrees Fahrenheit. It seems that every five years or so we'll get a bit of snow as well, but that doesn't seem to affect the plants. The must be pretty tolerant of heat as well... Last summer we had at least a week where the temperatures were about 115 or above every day, and they lived through that too (we were having to water the Hydrangeas about three times a day, though). And this summer is supposed to be even worse...
Just thought of another question about these plants... Who polinates them in the wild? Before I found out what they were, I thought they were a native of mediterranean areas of South America (Chile, Argentina, etc.) because hummingbirds seem like the perfect match for them - the flowers have lots of nectar, are brightly colored, and are the perfect length for most hummingbirds. I know in some areas of the Old World, there are large moths that fill the same niche as hummingbirds. Is this what's going on with the Cape Fuchsias? Most of those moths I've read about seem to be found solely in rainforests, so I'm not sure about that one.
I think there it would be other kinds of birds with long bills, maybe ones called sunbirds. The Cape is one of those places in the world that has astronomical numbers of plant species concentrated in small areas, so it would seem there might be a galaxy of pollinators as well - or ones that come to a wide range of flowers.
