Glory Flower, Princess Flower (Tibouchina urvilleana)

Flower.

Violet, are you growing this plant? I have seen this in California and I don't think they would be hardy for you. I snitched some starts of this when I was down there and had great luck rooting them. I have one little one in the greenhouse. Kell, if you read this, tell me do these tibouchinas like much water? I kinda think they don't. Any other tips for raising this plant?Joann

Joann,

Yes. I think anything can be hardy "for a while" at least LOL! This was a start with about 5 leaves and now it's the size of a small bush since May. I think it's more than quadrupled its size. It's absolutely gorgeous in person. It's in full sun in a black plastic container, watered every morning, and some mulch on top.

Joann,
I have one in zone 8 in the ground. It almost made it through the winter but the last frost got it. It came back and is as big as it was last year. (only about 3 feet but sprawls a bit)
Connie

Hi Joann, I just saw this! I have 5 of these growing. 2 huge ones in the front yard. They look kind of scruffy in the winter but leaf out well in the spring. I give it a hard pruning early spring and sometimes it looks dead but then all of a sudden I see little red stem buds sprout! It loves to be pruned hard or it gets leggy, keep watered but not drowning, and by all means fetilize a lot.

I use MG foliar feed and it loves it. do you want me to add a unrooted piece in your box Joann?

This message was edited Monday, Aug 26th 1:45 AM

If you have room, I do have a little start going in the greenhouse. I would like to even bring it in the house this winter as I have no heat in my greenhouse.Would it do ok? Maybe next spring I will try putting it outside. I think I tend to overwater it, I have been trying to let it dry out between waterings.

I am doing boxes now, so a couple of brugs, a naked lady, and this princess flower?? Did I promise anything else? i wish I could fit a crape myrtle in there............

Poor Princess ... maybe y'all can help us? We're in CA - inland of SF - it gets hot on our deck, very much full sun. I bought a Tibouchina in July and transplanted it to a good-sized pot. It's a bout 2' tall (STILL!) ... the leaves burned and curled. So I put it up front on the cooler side of the house, light afternoon sun ... it stopped blooming.

I've returned it to the full sun of the deck - it blooms again - but the leaves still are brown and look burned on the edges ... it has new growth, but in time is develops this same issue.

Help? Any ideas?

In the past week, the weather's turned cooler and grayer, so I'm not sure where we're headed. I'm in zone 9-10; it rarely freezes here.

I wonder if you are not watering it enough. Sometimes it is hard to keep one in a pot watered enough when it gets very hot. I have a standard in a big pot and it doesnot look great either. I just can not keep it wet enough and fertilized enough. The ones in the ground are doing much better, in fact they were incredible this year. You should put it in the ground, if you can. It should grow fast. Call Orchards on Acalanes and ask them but I am sure it should take your heat.

Thanks, Kell!

I installed a drip irrigation system at the end of this summer. The plants are all a lot happier. Hopefully the princess will benefit also this coming year.

I don't have anywhere to put it in the ground. My front yard is steep and is 95% shade - we have a beautiful oak in the middle of the yard - must be 75 feet tall and dense ... so it's hot, steep, and almost full shade up there ... *sigh* ...

Thanks again!
:o) Judith

Hi there, I sure hope you can help me out. I am zone 5a I believe. I have my plant in a pot year round (I bought at a nursery here last year) I had to repot it, the wind kept blowing it over. It was just beautiful I loved it, It looked like yours. Then I brought it in for the winter and the leafs and flowers started falling off, I thought it was just going dormant for winter even though they told me at the nursery that it should have leafs threw out the winter and maybe some flowers but they wasn't sure on that part. So anyway it started looking kinda bad so I trimmed off all of the old dead looking leafs and shaped the branches up a little bit, now it has a nicer shape to it (still big). I put it out side about a week ago (after all frost was gone from here) to bring it back to life and it's not doing much at all it has very little growing out of the dirt and on some of the branches. Can I do any thing or just give it time, maybe plant food bi-weekly or once a month ? All I've ever used is Miracle-Gro plant food.

Please ! I hope you or someone can help me out with this, I sure hate to lose it. Thank you so much for your help.

Thanks again, TDIowaGardener


This message was edited May 29, 2005 2:32 PM

This message was edited May 29, 2005 2:41 PM

Mine was in a pot was almost dead. I had not watered it. So I cut it way back and watered it well for a week or so then gave up hope. I had actually had my husband take it out of its pot and leave it by my car. I was going to bag it and toss. When I went to look again, it had lots of tiny buds so I cut off half its roots and repotted it. It is doing great. This is one plant that loves to be cut way back.

The sun is strong, but I think you can see all the budding.