Plant Encyclopedia

Group/Class:  Fun and Games® Collection

Brand:  Proven Winners

Description:

This easy variety is mainly grown for its attractive, heavily lobed, coppery-red foliage that matures to olive green in summer; creamy white bottlebrush flowers in spring on tall scapes; amazing contrast to other plants; keep moist in heat of summer

Ornamental Features

Fun and Games® Red Rover Foamy Bells features dainty spikes of creamy white bell-shaped flowers rising above the foliage from late spring to early summer. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its attractive lobed leaves emerge coppery-bronze in spring, turning olive green in color with distinctive dark brown veins and tinges of dark red the rest of the year. The dark red stems can be quite attractive.

Landscape Attributes

Fun and Games® Red Rover Foamy Bells is a dense herbaceous evergreen perennial with tall flower stalks held atop a low mound of foliage. Its relatively fine texture sets it apart from other garden plants with less refined foliage.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and should be cut back in late fall in preparation for winter. It is a good choice for attracting hummingbirds to your yard. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Fun and Games® Red Rover Foamy Bells is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• Rock/Alpine Gardens
• Border Edging
• General Garden Use
• Groundcover
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Fun and Games® Red Rover Foamy Bells will grow to be about 8 inches tall at maturity extending to 30 inches tall with the flowers, with a spread of 20 inches. When grown in masses or used as a bedding plant, individual plants should be spaced approximately 18 inches apart. Its foliage tends to remain low and dense right to the ground. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 10 years. As an evegreen perennial, this plant will typically keep its form and foliage year-round.

This plant does best in partial shade to shade. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. Consider covering it with a thick layer of mulch in winter to protect it in exposed locations or colder microclimates. This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid. It can be propagated by division; however, as a cultivated variety, be aware that it may be subject to certain restrictions or prohibitions on propagation.

Fun and Games® Red Rover Foamy Bells is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. With its upright habit of growth, it is best suited for use as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.