I first bought this Cigar-Plant in the 1990's in the Chicago, Illinois suburbs as a potted annual from a large, diverse, conventional garden center. I've never seen it sold at big box stores or Home Depot-Lowes. I have also used it in big pots for several years on the back deck in southeast Pennsylvania also with easy success. This last May of 2019, the large, diverse, conventional garden center-nursery did not have any to my surprise, in May and most of June. So I bought a new annual called a Bat-Face Cuphea instead. I like the new species, but I like the Cigar-Plant better. I have kept Cigar-Plants over a few winters inside my sunny and cool backroom and then put it outside on the back deck the coming May. They did not bloom in winter, but would make a few flowers in spring inside the house. I did not keep any inside in the winter of 2018-2019 because I needed more room for some other stuff. This Cuphea species is native to Mexico and the West Indies where it is a broadleaf evergreen sub-shrub, and like other Cuphea, it is a member of the Loosestrife Family of Lythraceae.

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