Today we visited the Missouri Botanical Garden. There they have a fantastic exhibit of blown glass by Dale Chihuly. If in the area before 10/31/06, I highly recommend a visit.
Anyway, in the gift shop, there are occasionally good plant finds. Today some plants on sale were down to 75% off. Among other things, I picked up a 2 gal Brunfelsia for $4.
My question is, how can I determine which species this Brunfelsia might be? There are no flowers. I Googled, but I can't find a key or any other way to distinguish the species of the genus.
Thanks in advance for any help.
SB
Clearance rack at MoBot...Brunfelsia question
I've seen a couple different species of Brunfelsia at garden centers, and if it's one of the standard lavender-flowering ones then even if it flowers it can be pretty hard to tell the different ones apart. There are a few species like jamaicensis that look a lot different (at least the flowers...don't know about the leaves). Have you tried asking the botanical garden which one it is? (see if they'll put you in touch with one of the people who propagates the shrubs, they'll almost for sure know but the gift shop staff probably won't) Botanical gardens are usually much better than nurseries about knowing what their plants are, even if they're not always very good at labelling them.
Thanks, ecrane, good idea. I did ask the lady at the register about another plant, the Adenium I purchased. She did what I did when I got home...she pulled up Google on her computer! After that, I didn't think I'd get much more out of her.
Maybe, if I can't figure it out, I can call back and ask for someone in the greenhouses during the week.
SB - we visited MOBOT the day after the big storm. St. Louis really got walloped but amazingly not one of the outdoor glass pieces was damaged. We also got to visit the herbarium which was fantastic. I got to see several very rare Navias (albeit quite dead!). The Henry Shaw Cactus and Succulent Society Show was going on which was our excuse for the trip.
Dave.
Sb,here's a couple pics of mine that might help you, mine here is Magnifica.
Now the flower picture
Does magnifica do the purple flower fading to white with time the way pauciflora does? I've always thought the two looked very similar, but I wasn't sure if they both did the color fading or if that was unique to pauciflora.
Thanks, Tropicman. Will watch for flower and compare. SB
Are you talking about the one called yesterday, today and tomorrow?
grandiflora??? I have one of those. They only bloom in the spring from the looks of mine. Fran
'Grandiflora' is a cultivar of B. pauciflora which is also known as Yesterday, Today,and Tomorrow because of the way the flowers change color from purple to lavender to white. I was wondering if B. magnifica showed that same color change behavior or not. Out here I see them blooming on and off through much of the year, probably more in the summer vs the spring though.
Well when I remember to look,I always see a faded white flower,don't know if it was a light lavender first or not.
I know magnifica starts out purple, so if it's always white when you see it then it must do the same fading thing.
Ok I'm watching two flowers now,yesterday and today still dark purple.
Hope I remember tomorrow to look!!!