Just love these things.....great foliage and definitely gives that tropical flare!
Justicia carnea 'Huntington'
Plumb Perfect Plume
That is a great color!
Wow, this is something new for me, is it something you can grow outdoors there? What is the hardiness range of this? Do you have to bring in?
Edited to add, do you grow any pentas, Happenstance? I would love to get these going.
This message was edited Jun 16, 2004 7:17 PM
I would say it is perfect.
What a gorgeous vibrant color!
Evening -
Yes these can be grown outdoors here. They are supposedly hardy to your zone Lenjo.
Pentas......as she sobs just a little. I babied one of these along for over a year. Finally found a place that it was happy and growing strong, about 3' tall and covered with lovely white flowers. Overnight it was history. We have had a major invasion of pocket gophers in the last two weeks and I've lost a dozen different perrenials and one of my 'Pinky' climbing roses.
I have NOTHING nice to say about gophers and am so totally disgusted with the damage they are doing. They've devoured almost all the Campanulas and at least half of my Eryngium also. I do have back-up plants of some varieties, but not all.
I am so sorry about gophers; that can sure knock the wind out of the gardening sails. I would be so discouraged. I get bent out of shape if even one gets close to the yard. My DH thank goodness has gotten one this past spring who threatened lilies etc. I think that was a mole though.
Candy, what camera do you use to capture these stunning images?
(I recently purchased a Justicea carnea 'Radiant' pink and hope it blooms as prettily).
Jean
Sorry Happen, I remember how utterly discouraged I was when a squirrel bit the buds off every single lily I had babied along for months. Used to like squirrels, too!
Happenstance, I just can't seem to get any justicias to really take off, despite fact that they love the climate here. Do you water them bunches? Fertilize? What? full sun or no? Mine just sit there and live. Pentas now...sometimes they grow like crazy, sometimes they don't. Like you say, seems more a matter of location than anything. So maddening when a nice one gets root rot and the whole thing just wilts and falls over.
But hey, at least you can grown campanulas! Not a chance with our humidity!
Just made my rounds on this very foggy, brisk morning......what a change! The temps dropped about 45 degrees within a couple of hours yesterday evening as a front moved through.
LSP - the camera is a Nikon CoolPix 995....several years old, no longer made, but a trusted and faithful friend in the garden.
Pocket gophers and California ground squirrels are a fact of life here, but this invasion is truly frightening. They are after everything and I'm getting the impression it will be a bad year for them. Have a friend who has lost 7 trees established for 5 years to gophers in the last couple of months. The ground squirrels don't even get wound up 'til about Aug/Sept.
I keep the Justicia in pots with morning sun and full shade afternoon. Keeping them in pots allows me to move them around as the angles of the sun change.....this week with temps nearing 100F they were moved back on the porch into deeper shade.
It's also easier to monitor soil moisture levels....I've found that if they get too wet they collapse and the plants weaken if they go dry a couple of times and never quite look the same. All the potted plants get fish emulsion every couple of weeks and that seems to help too.
This one is planted in a large low 20" ceramic pot the color of dark mottled taffy with 'Black Heart' Ipomoea batatas and I'm really pleased with the look.
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I don't like growing food for gophers, this 'Dixon's Gold' was about 24" across and covered in blooms. Gone overnight .... every leaf, blossom and root. :(
http://plantsdatabase.com/showpicture/41614/
I love justicia too! I bought one about a month ago and its been blooming for about a week. Here's a pic of it in its decline-- still so gorgeous.
Ohmigosh!
Gorgeous! Gorgeous! Azalea gave me one last spring at the roundup. Looked great all summer but I lost it trying to overwinter it inside.