Hardiness zones
Sunset 13 - 24
USDA 9 - 11

Landscape Use: Oasis and xeric landscape gardens (but not desert gardens), informal rock gardens, raised planters, hanging baskets, flowering accent.

Form & Character: Wispy, arching and spreading, cascading, informal, free spirit, random.

Growth Habit: Fast growing, evergreen perennial shrub with an arching and cascading habit, 3'-5' height with similar spread.

Foliage/texture: Wirey green, much branched photosynthetic angular stems, foliage highly variable ranging from up to 7" in a whorl, ovate, to 1" long, but mostly reduced to very small linear scales, fine texture.

Flowers & fruits: Hanging clusters of scarlet tubular flowers about 1" long; flowers look like small firecrackers, thus the common name; fruit inconspicuous.

Seasonal color: Free flowering most of the year

Temperature: Heat loving, cold tolerant to 25^oF

Light: Full sun to partial sun

Soil: Tolerant, though prefers a rich, organic, well drained soil

Watering: Deeply and at regularly infrequent intervals is the operating mantra for growing coral bush in the desert. Regular frequent irrigations will cause coral bush to rapidly grow crazy.

Pruning: Coral bush cannot be trained formally; it will resist you! Pruning should therefore consist of periodically using heading and/or reduction cuts to control/reduce shrub size all the while preserving it's informal, natural shape.

Propagation: Relatively easy to propagate vegetatively by using stem tip cuttings.

Disease and pests: Coral bush is prone to soil borne fungal pathogens in poorly drained soil

Additional comments: Coral bush is a wonderful, 'free spirit' of a plant. It attracts butterflies. Be careful not to let around Bermuda grass or other perennial grasses establish around and beneath it. These grasses will tend to grow up into the coral bush crown. If that happens, then eradication of these grasses will be tough. Coral bush has naturalized in central and south Florida and is considered to be moderately invasive in some parts of the world. The species name 'equisetiformis' means having the form of Equisetum (horsetails).