The man at the nursery told me this plant wouldn't grow here.........That was last year.
Blue Butterflies
Aren't you glad he was wrong? LOL
Aint dat da truth, Ada :)~ Love it, Susie One of my favorites probably cuz it is blue and in the shape of butterflies. My true loves.... :)
I overwintered mine in a dark basement. It was trying to bloom in January on spindly shoots. Now it is green and bushy and....not a flower on it. :(
What am I doing wrong?? Are they heavy feeders and I'm starving it??
Please help....
Those are so beautiful! I think they like Texas, mine is over the top right now..very tall. I've been able to propegate it from hard branches. Rj
Why did he think it wouldn't grow there Susie?
I was at HD tonight after work and they had small standards of it. I almost bought one. They had lots of small standards of different things. Why do they get all this stuff at the end of the season??
I took a picture. LOL. They were a good size and full. Here they bloom all winter. A friend has one. I am convincing myself to go back and get one. LOL
one of my favorites
Kell, they are pretty hardy, they flower most of the year here. The freeze did do some damage, but they came right back. The nursery man said they didn't like our soil, but I added peat and compost and bunny poo and they like it just fine.
Eva, they like fertilize, I use 15-5-10 granules once a month and plenty of water.
Thank you Susie. My mind is always on fert that is good for da brugs...lol
I have to go tomorrow and look for this one...
I need a crash course on different ferts for different plants....
Kell, let me help you...... go back and get it..... please... :)
I wish they would sell ones like that here. The tree form is beautiful.....
Eva, I use the 15-5-10 on everything, then when I fertilize with citrus or palm food, everything gets it, lol. It's got extra iron and magnesium in it.
I just found out about an iron/sulphur coctail for chlorotic plants, peee-eeew, that was stinky stuff but the plants are starting to green up. I'd tried everything on a chlorotic potato bush and an evergreen wisteria and nothing worked.
Im so glad I am finding other people have a tough time getting some of this stuff to bloom
But I can say I do have this one blooming
Its still small ,and it took 3 years.....but its blooming!!
It's so beautiful, Calalily! I got a piece from DonnaB. It hasn't bloomed yet.
:) Donna
It is a favorite of mine ... just beautiful!!
Hey Susie, what is the iron/sulphur coctail and where can I get it?
Some of my plants could use it....
Can it be applied with hard water..... Ph 7.5???
Eva, it's for hard water!
Mix 16 ounces of liquid sulphur and 5-TBSP LIQUID Chelated Iron in 5 gallons of water. Use a little bit on small potted plants, from 1 to 3 gallons of mixture on big plants and the whole 5 gallons on big bushes and trees(I mean trees, not brugs, lol). The only thing I know of that is sensitive to iron is marigolds, I've used this on alot of stuff and it's greened most of them up. A big potato bush is still yellow but my friend said sometimes it takes more than one application. Don't use this more often than once a month.
Caution: liquid sulphur stinks really bad, so don't mix it in your kitchen or it will smell like rotten eggs!
There is also a chelated iron powder, I can't think of the name, it starts with a "C" and is about $20 per pound, it's good too. Don't substitute Ironite granules for the liquid iron.
Oh, thank you Susie.
Some of my seedlings are way to yellow...
Since we moved, I need to find the right fertilizers....
The water is so much harder here.
Do you know which fertilizer I should use for my brugs? Which one is especially formulated for hard water?
Miracid will reduce the pH. Peters and Masterblend each have a special fertilize to lower the pH, but I can't remember the names.
Calalily, this is my first year for this plant and I just love it...it has bloomed nonstop for months. The other day I noticed some huckleberry looking things where there had been blooms..assuming they were seeds, I picked and saved them. Now I'm wondering if you can tell me if they can be grown from these seeds or if it would just be easier to propogate by cuttings?
Thanks so much!
Mary
Does anyone know it this will grow in Central Florida? Zone 9b but we have very humid hot summers...
Thank you!
Mary, yes, save the seed. Soak them overnight when you're ready to plant them.
Ana, it should do well in south Florida.
Wow, this is an exciting thread.....first, I need to know what kind of money they wanted for the standard at HD, Kell? I don't even want to lust for something that's not on the budget right now. Second, I've just moved to a new area with really hard water. Something I've never dealt with in gardening. steel_datura, thanks for asking that question, and Calalily, thanks for the explicit instructions. I have a few plants in my new yard that need greening. I used my tried-and-true method of dumping coffee grounds around them for a couple of weeks and.....nothing.....well, that' s not true.....they grew like crazy but are still yellow. So I was just getting to the point of putting two and two together with the hard water/absorbing acid issue, and along came the pros! Plus an awesome flowering plant/tee to add to the excitement. Isn't DG great for sorting out your gardening questions?
The only plant this has not worked on is Evergreen Wisteria. I can't get that plant green, I've tried EVERYTHING! It is so yellow, won't bloom.......don't know what is wrong cause the plants all around it are green.
Hey, have you tried coffee grounds, lol? I swear, I have some kinda touch with coffee grounds. My plants just RESPOND when I sprinkle them around. Of course, I've learned with hard water, there may be some minor adjustments to that routine. I'm sorry now I didn't take some shots of the sorry plants that were here when I moved in. Just for the before/after effect. The things that have especially loved my attentions are the hydrageas, calas (they were pathetic!), rhododendrons/azaleas/camellias. Perfect climate for them, but BAD soil. So, if I were to hypothetically get this blue butterfly plant/tree (I'm trying to be in denial for a minute here so I don't want to seriously research it), what kind of light conditions does it need? Man, if I have anything to say about it, this place will be a jungle come next summer.
Stella, I will try the coffee grounds. The Blue Butterfly needs full sun, regular watering and average fertilize. I'm going for the jungle look too!
Stellapathic, just keep your eyes open. I got these for $5 and then half that 2 weeks later at Wally World. In our climates creating a standard is not difficult. The potato vine here was a $1 Lowes palnt about 15 months ago and just a stick about april. I have let it run a bit wild since it was blooming so prettily. It needs a new stake as the current one is too short now and a haircut. I have an training the regular butterfly bushes into standards as well. We do not have enough room in our CA gardens for bushy bushes Lol! My blue butterfly (clerodendrum) went to my Dad in northern Ca as he could not find one there so I am on the lookout for another too.
Calalily, To help green up your plant, use 1 TBP epsom salts
dissolved in one gallon of water with your fertilizer mixed right in
A professional grower friend taught me this many yrs ago.
Said the epsom salt opens the roots up so the plant can better
absorb the nitrogen etc.
It worked for me to green up my brugs. I could see the difference almost overnight.. Thought it was amazing.
Jackie
Jackie, tried that, didn't work. I've tried everything. This plant and a blue potato bush(solanum) are the only two determined to keep their yellow leaves. I have another blue potato bush, it's nice and green and I treat them the same.
I noticed that the ones I've propagated from branches have not bloomed yet, although they are looking healthy. It must take them a while to get going. I'm letting grow as big as I can so I can try to propagate some more.
This pict looked like a bunch of blue fairies heading towards the currant swirl!.
click on this link to enlarge picture
http://davesgarden.com/mail/pmailpic.php?pid=282830
This message was edited Oct 6, 2005 5:22 PM
This message was edited Oct 6, 2005 5:23 PM
It's difficult the keep the flowers on the shrub because the Bumble bees LOVE them. If you can imagine, they land on those and turn upside down, some of which fall off.
Rj
I've seen the plant covered with bumblebees. I wondered what was happening to my flowers!