Jacki Kellum Garden – Firecracker [Cuphea] on the Right
Party Time on the Bottom [Alternanthera]

I discovered a plant that was labeled Firecracker Plant several years ago.

Early this summer, I bought a completely different plant that was also named Firecracker Plant. When I researched the two plants more thoroughly, I discovered that the first plant is Cuphea and that the second plant is Russelia.

Firecracker Plant [Russelia]
Image Credit: Sandy’s Nursery

The only thing that these two vastly different plants share is a nickname: “Firecracker.”

If I were in a Shakespearian theater, I might support the idea that names are unimportant [“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet” – Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet].

But I’m not Shakespearian, and I place a great deal of importance in the naming of things. I never buy grab bags of plants or bulbs marked “Unnamed.” I DO want to know the name of everything growing in my garden. My plants are like family to me. In my opinion, my plants deserve a name–and they deserve names that distingjish them from the herd.