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| Category: Shrub |
| Family: Rubiaceae (Madders) |
| Origin: Mexico (North America) |
| Evergreen: Yes |
| Flower Color: Yellow |
| Bloomtime: Spring/Fall |
| Synonyms: [Deppia, Hort.] |
| Height: 6-8 feet |
| Width: 4-5 feet |
| Exposure: Cool Sun/Light Shade |
| Irrigation (H2O Info): Medium Water Needs |
| Winter Hardiness: 30-32° F |
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Deppea splendens 'Cristóbal' (Golden Fuchsia) – An open multi-stemmed shrub to 8 feet tall by about 5 feet wide with attractively ribbed bright green leaves in whorls of three. Flowering in the late summer through fall in the bay area and often starting in spring further to the south, it has 6 inch long wiry peduncles from which dangle a corymb of 2 inch long tubular yellow flowers that flare outward at the tips of the 4 petals and hang beneath dark red calyces. Best kept in a light shade in southern California to full sun to the north and along the coast. Give regular to occasional irrigation - a plant in our garden is thriving in afternoon sun with infrequent watering. This plant is tender and best in areas with just light frost, though it survived and rebounded in our garden after the three nights at 25° F in the January 2007 freeze with only a building's eaves for protection. A very attractive and interesting specimen shrub in the garden or as a large container plant and seems particularly at home in a cool yet nearly frost free coastal garden. Deppea splendens was first collected as pressed specimens by Dennis Breedlove in 1972 in Chiapas, Mexico, as part of his ongoing work for the Flora of Chiapas. It was only known from a single canyon on the cool cloud forests on a south slope of Cerro Mozotal in of Southern Chiapas, where it grew as a large shrub or small tree. Plants in cultivation are seedlings of a Dennis Breedlove and Bruce Bartholomew's collection at this site from 1981, which at that time was described as an "unknown Rubiaceae". It was described in 1987 as Deppea splendens by Dennis Breedlove and David Lorence and noted from a visit in 1986 as possibly extinct in the wild since the site of this original collection was cleared for farm crop and urban development. We first received two clones of Deppea splendens (types "B" and "C") and started growing the type "C" form which was then named 'Cristóbal', after the city of Chiapas that Breedlove used as his home base during the decades he collected there. Our release of this plant coincided with it being a Pacific Plant Promotion introduction in year 2000. Pacific Plant Promotion is a collaboration between the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, the Huntington Botanic Garden and Pacific Horticulture. The name for the genus honors German naturalist Ferdinand Deppe (1794-1861) who with the German botanist Diederich von Schlechtendal collected the type species, Deppea erythrorhiza, in Veracruz, Mexica in 1829. The specific epithet is from the Latin word for "bright", "shinning" or "splendid". Occasionally the genus name is spelled incorrectly as Deppia. We first saw the common name "Golden Fuchsia" listed for it on the Annie's Annuals website and felt the name so fitting for this rare attractive plant that we too list it as such since no other common name seems to exist
Information displayed on this page about Deppea splendens 'Cristóbal' is based on the research conducted about it in our library and from reliable online resources. We also note those observations we have made of this plant as it grows in the nursery's garden and in other gardens, as well how crops have performed in our nursery field. We will incorporate comments we receive from others, and welcome to hear from anyone who may have additional information, particularly if they share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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