[This is the first in a series of flowers or plants I’ve been trying out, and they range from amazing to amusing with a few disappointments along the way.] Looking for all the world like a collection of miniature glowing cigars with rims of ashes at the ends, Cuphea Ignea is a cinch to grow from seed and makes a pleasing two-foot wide mound in a low planter. In New York this Mexican native shrub is grown as an annual. Either the flowers’ tubular shape or their color is the attraction for hummingbirds, and I have watched them hover for several minutes, sampling from each of the hundreds of inch-long blossoms before moving on.