I would love to get this started in my garden. I could pay postage or trade for dahlia or lily bulbs next spring/fall.
Do you think ruella would be hardy for me? We get pretty wet here too through the winter and spring.
Ruella or desert petunia
I have the really tall one that is purple. It tends to be invasive. I believe it would grow for you. I can't stop it. JLMK.
Blessings,
Sandy ^8^
darnit, dstartz, you beat me to it. Do dwarf ruellia mail well? I've never sent any to anyone.
What colors are these and are they invasive? I looked at the plant files and there seem to be several different ones. I love the red one. The blue one is pretty too, the one that almost looks like petunia leaves and all...I have never seen these. I have seen the Mexican petunia, I couldn't tell if it would spread or how many blooms it would produce.
JanetS
KC,
The real question to ask is, 'Can anything really kill this stuff!?!?'. ;->
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Janet,
I have the red http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/38204/index.html , the dwarf pink http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/27238/ , the dwarf blue http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/2926/ , 'Blue Bell' ruellia http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/38214/index.html , what looks like Wild Petunia ruellia http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/708/index.html and probably have some tall blue http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/88401/index.html lurking along the back fence line.
Personally, I like the red ones; I have 2 growing in pots in my yard. And I don't mind digging their volunteers out out of my other pots.
But the regular, long leaf ruellia, those can take an act of congress to remove as they have roots that travel somewhere close to the speed of sound and go deeeep.
Janet, I have the mexican. It produces about a million blooms per tidy little plant, give or take a thousand. Seriously, it is constantly and heavily covered. This is a blue you can see clear across the yard - very showy which is rare for blue. It does reseed, not to the point that I consider it invasive. It can be killed, in spite of what dstartz said - if you dig some up and drop some and it lies on the ground with its roots in zone9 full sun for a few days in drought season, there will be a 50% attrition rate when you plant it, even if you aim the hose in its general direction for a few minutes after planting. Honest.
I would love to have some. Whatever you have to trade or for postage, just LMK The red reminds me of the red salvia, I like the ones that are not hard to contain...so whatever you have would be great.
Thanks,
JanetS
Dstartz, I would love a start of whatever you would want to send. I can postage or you can wait for dahlias or lily tubers. I have other stuff too. Looking for anything in particular? So if we can work a trade just LMK. Joann By the way thanks for all the links.
Lenjo,
I have the really tall purple and you really can not get rid of it.
As Dstartz said "But the regular, long leaf ruellia, those can take an act of congress to remove as they have roots that travel somewhere close to the speed of sound and go deeeep."
I have sprayed and dug, but if you leave a piece of root it starts again. Now it has sent roots round and thru my crinum bulbs. Bah Humbug.
I would like some of the red and blue and pink short one as I have a few pots
I wouldn't care it filled up.
I see I'm not the only one that's 'A day late and a dollar short'. I just gave away several tubs of ruellia to some poor, unsuspecting young lady. But, I do have LOTS of volunteers coming up in my pots.
Starting Sunday I will have 4 full days of good gardening days (the moon signs will be right for propagating, etc.). I had planned to dig them up and repot them. I would be more than happy to send some of them on to both of you. And I will do them for trades or postage. (I would love some lily tubers!!)
I must tell you though, if you want the brittoniana varieties now, I won't know for sure what colors I'll be sending. That would have to be 'a catch as catch can' kind of thing. If you want to wait until they bloom and then get specific colors I'm okay with that, too.
The 'Blue Bell' ruellia I can divide this week; I have small volunteers of 'Ragin Cajuns.
I will gladly send to you full grown plants of 'Wild Petunia' ruellia , but you need to know it is a weed that found it's own way into my yard and I CANNOT get rid of it!
And if you really want some of the tall blue ruellia I'll see if I can dig some up.
LMK
You guys are making me think this could be something like bindweed. My hubby would have my head if I brought something like that in. Geesh. Maybe just the shorter brittonia varieties, I would not care what varieities/colors and I would keep them confined to pots. Thanks in advance and I will email you my address. Joann
I planted the tall purple one in the Spring of 2001. By that first Fall I knew I had made a big mistake so I pulled up all I could get my hands on. Now, in 2005 I am still fighting it. That stuff, no matter how pretty, is the worst sort of invasive plant for me. If you leave the tiniest piece of root in the ground it will sprout. They are as bad as the evil Florida Betony.
I would welcome any ideas from those who have successfully eliminated or controlled Mexican Petunia..
planted about the same time and I an having the same problem. I pulled some up 2 days ago.
Maybe if we could call someone in China they could push the roots up from the
bottom. Beautiful flowers hideous plant. I have tried round up no luck eliminating but a piece at a time I sprayed.
Do not plant in the ground, please.
It should come with a warning. All beautiful things look like heaven, but to get rid of will be H___!
I guess I should have known when a nursery gave me a gallom pot free. I got more than I paid for.
Sandy
Okay, so I think I am confused (not a new thing). We have the short plant with the purple flowers. Our neighbors have it also. They have had theirs for 2 or 3 years now. Although there have been a couple of volunteer plants that popped up, it really hasn't been what I would consider invasive. Am I just naive? Does it take longer than that to become invasive? Theirs is a large clump.
Anyway, any clarification would be appreciated. BTW, Donna, red ones sound really pretty. Are they invasive also?
Thanks,
Sheila
I didn't mean to confuse you. The one I am speaking of and others also I believe is one that grows around 5-6 ft tall.
Sorry.
lol
Sandy ^8^
I believe, the short clumping style ones are not as prolific as their taller, leggy cousins.
As for shipping the taller ones, if you can trim these, throw the cuttings into the yard waste bin, leave them there for 3 or 4 days and have your neighbor come get them to plant on his property, the cuttings won't care about a little postal abuse.
I brought some cuttings of the blue/purple ones here to my new house last year. I planted them along one side of my screened patio, like in a hedge row. They did quite nicely for the purpose of filling the space. They bloom every day which is lovely to see when sitting on the patio sipping iced tea. As a curiosity, some how these blue/purples sported into some pinks.
I had them in several places in my old yard, and when I dug all my plants to bring here, there were some roots hiding in the other plants. So I get a hitch hiker in my perennials, iris, and daylily beds. When I feel like it, I just yank them out.
This area by the patio is my "no care" bed. The garbage bins are kept along here and I don't want to see them or smell them when I'm on the patio. So the ruellias do their job. Any runners get mowed.
Molly
:^)))
I have just the spot for those!
JanetS
The Tall Purple "Mexican Petunias" are absolutely beautiful when in flower and they drop the old blooms and put up new ones every day from early spring to frost. AND the plant looks so healthy and requires no care or fertilizer at all. BUT if you don't want them forever and if you don't want to be digging and pulling them out contantly don't plant them. They spread underground from the roots and come up 6 feet away from where they are presently growing. AND if you leave one little bit of root, a new plant will spring from that. It certainly is an aggressive grower. I think they may even spread from seed as well. My neighbor has a small bed of the pink ones on the far side of my hedge row and they have sprouted 10 feet out on my side. I can't believe the root is that long so I am guessing they can spread from seeds also. The Pink ones are not nearly so attractive as the Purples, IMHO, AND the short Mexican Petunias are not supposed to be nearly so aggressive and invasive as the Tall Purple Mexican Petunias.
There is a native plant called Wild Petunia (which is not really a petunia--neither, by the way, is the Mexican one we have been discussing) which has flowers similar to the Purple Mexican Petunia but doesn't bloom as often nor as heavily. BUT it is very beautiful when it does bloom. I notice that it says it is ALSO hard to remove from areas where it isn't wanted. But it seems MUCH less aggressive to me than the Mexican variety. I haven't seen any suckers coming up from it.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/24917/