I know Iocroma is a distant relative of the brug. Does it stay this tiny?
Iocroma
The blossoms are tiny.
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But great colors!
Yes, it stays that tiny. I currently have almost all of mine blooming in the greenhouse and tons of seedpods. I noticed today a seedpod had fallen off, I have been checking them often to see when they are ripe. I have never harvested seed from Iochroma before. The pod was more like a "fruit" than a dried seed pod. It was still green and when burst open had a sweetish fruity aroma, tempted to taste it, but I didn't. There were small seeds inside. I wonder if this is ripe or not? I'll post some pics of my flowers.
This is Royal Blue
THis is Indigo
This is sky blue.
This is wine red.
This is plum
I also have Grandiflora, but don't have a decent pic of mine, this is somebody else's pic.
Not a very good pic, but these are a few seed pods. I have tons on them
What other plants would work well with them? Yours look great.
Hi Maryinla,
There are beautiful! Are these hard to grow? I started to order them from Kartuz on line many many times but changed my mind. Didn't want pay the money when I wasn't sure if I could grow them. Any information you can give me on them will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Daisy
In LosAngeles I don't assume you would ever have die back, and these can get rather large, like a brug, but aren't nice and upright like brugs, they tend to be kinda lax in growth habits, more of a wide arching type shrub. Kell can tell you, I think she had one that got out of hand in her yard. I don't have one in the ground yet, well, I take that back, I did put a fuchsioides in the ground to experiment and see if it will return here. I plan on putting more in the ground next year with backup cuttings just in case, we are borderline here.
Flowerjunkie, I don't think you could overwinter these in the ground in 8a, it is marginal here in 8b/9. They will do okay in large pots, though, like brugs. I treat mine pretty much the same as my brugs, water when they wilt and need watering, don't fertilize quite as much as brugs. They bloom best in spring and fall, not much during the heat of summer. I did have an indigo in the ground last year that got root rot when we had too much rain, so I know they can be sensitive to too much water.
How large (small) are the blooms?
They look great Mary. Not a good bloomer for me, but I didn't know how to care for them when I had them a couple of summers ago.
Mary...those are so beautiful, I think I will try growing some.
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Are the grandiflora blooms much larger than the others?
Mary all the colors are beautiful. You must have the magic touch.
Wow! I dont know that I have ever seen one of these. (or payed attn anyway) They are beautiful! Do the flowers smell at all?
No smell on mine.... but very purple.
The blooms are small, 2 inches long or so, Grandiflora blooms are about the same size but the trumpet opening is larger. Did that make sense?
I have never noticed a fragrance, either.
I forgot to add this pic earlier. Again, this is not my pic as I don't have a good pic of my fuchsioides. It is the reddest of them all.
well a cluster of 2" blooms would make a nice statement. I was afraid they were like 1/2". Do they need full sun?
Nope, mine have bloomed nicely in partial shade.
They are so beautiful. I tried to grow them but yard is to wet and i killed them in pots too.
Maryinla,
Thanks for all the tips. I can grow brugs here under shade trees with heavy mulching. They still die back but never have had one root freeze. I'm going to try them. They are absolutely beautiful.
Thanks again,
Daisy
I can grow brugs here too, in the ground, with heavy mulching, but I believe the Iochroma are more sensitive, so you might want to have backups rooted just in case they don't return. They don't root as easily as brugs, either, at least not for me. Try air-layering as was suggested to me.
These are soooo beautiful. With the kind of rains you get in CA I would be looking for an area of the yard that would be a bit protected from the rains and some good draining soil mix.
Where can you buy these? Do they grow from cutings like brugs?
to add to woodspirits questions?-----are they fairly hardy, or do you winter them over like brugs in most zones?
I got my iochromas from Kartuz, online. To be safe, I would winter them over inside. I'm not sure they could take the lows that you would have zone 7a.
I still have the grandiflora in the ground. It gets huge and spreads droopily out. I hack it back regularly!!! I dug up my orange one and it sits in a pot. I killed my wine one. It gets drowned where it is in winter and it survives fine. Blooms in the cold. I never cover it and it lived thru our bad early frost we had.
Hey, just went out to see if I could get a picture of blooms and we are in a major frost for us. It is 32 degrees at 8 AM. No warning!! The leaves of this have a light covering of ice. I will let you know how it does! LOL
PS Mary, great pics!
This message was edited Jan 3, 2004 9:26 AM
One of my favorites is Sunset, I find that if you let Grandiflora get too dry it stinks like dirty feet!
This message was edited Jan 3, 2004 6:54 PM
I love the reds and purples...are they hard to root?
I had to go out and smell my Grandiflora, Tracey, and you are right, the blooms do smell like dirty feet.
Funny you should ask CC, Mary and I just had this conversation, they aren't the easiest plant in the world for sure. I think someone told me the side shoots were easier. When I water Mary, I water that one last and run!
