Esperanza
COMMON NAMES: Esperanza, Yellow Bells
BOTANICAL NAME: Tecoma stans ‘Gold Star’
PRONUNCIATION: tea-COMA stans
TYPE: Annual Sun
HEIGHT: 4 feet
SPREAD: 3 feet
SPACING: 3 – 4 feet
HABIT: Showy selection of a bushy native. Blooms all summer with dramatic yellow flowers.
CULTURE: Although technically a shrub, normally treated as a summer annual. Can be a perennial in hardiness zones 9 through 11, especially in an organic program, but and doesn’t tolerate winter frost. Esperanza flowers abundantly in summer and early fall. Its yellow, tube-shaped flowers attract both bees and butterflies to the garden.
USES: Large color plant for summer.
PROBLEMS: Not very winter hardy.