Orange Slices Spigelia

Light Needs

Partial Shade to Full Sun

(At Least 4 Hours of Direct Sunlight)

Mature Height

12-18 Inches

Mature Spread

12-18 Inches

Growing Zones

5 to 9

Orange Slices Spigelia provides hummingbird-ready tubular blooms in either sun or part shade. Its orange-red flowers appear for weeks from late spring into summer. It forms a neat, mounded clump about 16–20 inches tall and 16–18 inches wide. In full sun it tends to be more floriferous, while part shade reduces stress and keeps foliage fresher in warm regions. We recommend it for those tricky “bright shade” edges where you want real color, not just foliage.

Spigelia marilandica ‘Orange Slices’ is a North American native that’s surprisingly hard to find in gardens. It is long-lived once it settles in, and it’s self-cleaning, so spent blooms drop rather than clinging and turning brown on the stems. Because it naturally occurs in woodlands and along streambanks, it’s a smart fit for pollinator plantings that bridge the gap between sunny borders and shaded understories. Use it as a focal clump near a path where you can watch hummingbirds visit the flowers, or repeat it in a drift to thread color through a woodland border.

Orange Slices Spigelia Care

Plant Orange Slices Spigelia in full sun to part shade. In the South, filtered sun often gives the best balance of flowers and foliage. It prefers rich, moisture-retentive soil that still drains well, with a pH that runs slightly acidic to neutral. Avoid planting in spots that bake dry, especially if you’re giving it more sun.

Water when the top inch of soil starts to dry, and don’t let a new planting go through a dry spell during its first growing season. If your soil is already fertile, skip heavy feeding; a light spring top-dress of compost is usually enough to support bloom. In winter it dies back, then produces fresh growth from the crown when temperatures warm.

After the main flush, you can lightly trim the plant back to tidy it and encourage follow-up flowering, but you won’t need to deadhead. Clean up remaining stems in early spring before new shoots emerge. Since Spigelia dislikes being moved once established, divide only if you truly need more plants, and do it in spring while the clump is just waking up.

Orange Slices Spigelia Spacing

Space plants 16–18 inches apart so the clumps form a full planting without crowding air flow. In containers, use a pot around 12–14 inches wide and treat Spigelia as a filler around a taller centerpiece plant.

For landscape companions, pair it with asters for late-season bloom support and ferns to echo its woodland roots without competing for the same visual space. In containers, combine it with begonias for steady color in part shade and alyssum to soften the rim and keep pollinators circling.

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