Kell????

I show off blooms to a friend of mine at work, and we really need to know the name of the blue tree in the background of some of your shots, and how long it blooms please? thanks a bunch cheryl

I have 2 kinds of purple that are all over my yard for great color. This one is Tibouchina urvilleana, and I just love it. It is still blooming now! In the summer it is covered in blooms, now they are much sparser. This winter we had 3 nights of frost. It did not even get touched, though most of my brugs leaves got fried! One year we had a really bad winter, it died down to the ground but came back. I prefer this in the tree shape.

Too keep compact in growth it likes a good pruning in spring.

This color is off, it is true purple.

Solanum rantonnetii is the other one of which I also have several. Again great color all summer long. This winter they have not dropped their leaves as they usually do but the flowers are few. It is covered in summer. It likes to grow as a bush with twiggy growth, but I have one trained into a small tree and I love it. Another I have as a 6 headed pompom sculpture. The others are about 12 feet bushes. The flowers are quarter size but they are profuse.

This also a true purple though I have seen it and may have it (lol) as a more blue color.

Kell----those are SO pretty---blue/purple that vibrant and abundant is hard to come by?---I know you leave them out year round, but from what I have read, they arent hardy here, so????? what kind of root system do they have, can they be dug up and brought in to go dormant? That much color is worth the effort I think. cheryl

Kell sent me one of each of these plants last spring and I kept them in pots and brought them into the basement this fall. They seem to be holding over very well under light. I did have to do some whacking on them to get them in the house though.

They love to be whacked though! Both just grow thicker with a good pruning each spring. Feed them early and feed them well and they will take off. Fast growers!

I have no idea about their roots, Play. I do grow them in pots periodically for a splash of color but end up putting them in the ground after a year or 2 which is why I have them all over.

Are you going to root prune yours Brugie and repot in new dirt? I bet they will like that. So Brugie, had you ever seen these before in Iowa? I am surprised nurseries do not sell them where it is colder for annual color for they grow fast and bloom early.

Kell, I've not seen them. Arlene sent me a tibouchina a couple of years ago, but it never bloomed for me until fall and only a couple of blooms. The Solanum was totally new to me and I love it. What a bloomer. I will root prune mine in the spring and hold them in the greenhouse until they get going well and then out they go. Two of the best blooming plants there are in my yard, for sure. Here is a picture of my potato bush. The picture doesn't really do it justice. It was in heavier bloom a little later, but I didn't get a good picture.

Here is my tibouchina. It really is more purple. My camera always makes purple look more blue for some reason.

Kell and Shirley .... they are both beautiful.

Deb, they both got about twice that big before fall and were just loaded purple with blooms. Great growers and not fussy about anything except having water.

Kell and Shirley, aren't those just gorgeous. I'm going to look on the computer and find a mail order nursery and order me some of those beauties. lol Wish there was a plant that bloomed the color your tibouchina looks in the picture, Shirley. It would be a knockout.

I wonder if yours will get even bigger this year Brugie. Here they will grow 6 feet in the ground in one year easily. The color is a nice backdrop for a pink brug.

Cameras have a hard time with purple I think. Though I just looked outside my window here and noticed the purple in my picture is similar to what the color is outside.

I have not tried to root these myself but a friend did and was not successful. I think Liz has tried also and couldn't. I sent Brugie gallon cans I had bought. The cost to ship was high. I wish they sold them in 4 inch pots. Mostly I see 5 gallon cans of them.

Kell, I took a lot of cuttings this fall of the solanum and got one to root. I also took a ton of cuttings from the tibouchina and followed directions given to me on one of the other forums and still had no luck with it.

I've killed tons of the tibouchina cuttings, but the summer before last I managed to root 3 out of 6.I took the cuttings mid summer,dipped them in that Shultz root starter (liquid transplant stuff)put them in vermiculite and put them in the mini greenhouse....that was how I rooted the sangs too.....but I've never gotten the tibou to bloom,it had buds when I put it in the GH this fall but they dried up....

I'll try again next summer, but earlier than I did this year and hope that I can get at least a couple of them started. It is a great plant.

Shirley,
Does your potato bush stay outside year round?
Where can these be found?
I have seen the vine but not the bush.

No, I have to keep it in the basement. If you ever find one, you can probably take cuttings of the potato bush easy enough to have the next year. I'll look around and see where they can be purchased.

http://www.rareflora.com/solanummac.htm

http://www.rareflora.com/tibouchinaath.html

There are many different kinds. You will probably just have to look around to find the best deal.

This message was edited Jan 25, 2004 1:18 PM

Shirley,thank you for the information.