Are Plant Info Sticks wrong alot?

Hi, I am new to gardening and I love it. However, I have had to rely on the descripton sticks that come with the plants for info. At least until I found "Daves Garden" this morning. I purchased a beautiful Plume Flower (Justicia Carnea) Sunday at a nursery. The associate said full sun, the description stick said bright light, so I planted it in full sun. Yesterday it wilted. So this morning I did an search on it and found this wonderful website which informed me that this plant should be planted in the shade. Does this happen often? Thanks for being there! Debbie in Denham Springs

It is generally good to check a couple sources besides the plant tag when it comes to caring for plants, some growers are better than others about getting the care info right. Plant Files is definitely a good place to start, but it can occasionally be wrong too, so if it's a plant I don't know much about, I'll generally check a few other places too.

Even if it is a plant that can take full sun, when you plant it in the middle of summer it's naturally going to wilt because of the shock of planting, even the most heat/sun tolerant plants need some time to get their roots established before they will really enjoy being in the heat & sun. And sometimes even if all the info you find on a plant says it likes full sun, if you live in an area where the summers are really hot, you often need to give it a little shade during the hottest part of the day to make it happy.

Thankyou ecrane3 for your reply. I checked out your projects and your landscape is awesome. Thanks again for the info.

Drapelady,

I have had this plant for a couple of years now. It has grown quite q bit and, I think, next year I will have to either-root prune it or repot it in a bigger pot. It looked a bit stressed this year but the first bloom was beautiful.
I had it in the house all last winter and it did OK--nothing spectacular. I put it outside--first in shade, then in a bit brighter spot and then in a spot where it gets full sun until about 5PM. Then the tree shades it.

The second round of bloom was pretty bad. All the leaves are yellowing and falling off. You know how hot it has been! I have it in an 8" clay pot that is glazed on the inside. Still-the soil gets as hot as the air and 98* for a month can kill anything. I probably should have planted it in a bed.

When I have to bring it in, I will cut it back to about 6" and spray it well.

Here's some pictures of my Brazilian Plume Flower.

Gita

A close-up of the bloom.

Here's the whole pot.

I think it needs roomier quarters. I have seen pictures of it in it's native habitat. They grow into small trees! Just like the Brugmansia.

Thankyou Gita for the photos and info. Oh, your plant is beautiful. Very encouraging to see how pretty mine is gonna get. I haven't had time to transplant mine yet, so I created shade over it yesterday and this morning a have a beautiful new bloom. By the way, I was born in Baltimore and haved lived in Lousiana since I was 2 years old. I've never had the chance to go back to see my birthplace. Thanks so much for your reply.

DRAPELADY WELCOME!!!!!! Dave's is an awesome place, and Plantfiles is just amazing! Enjoy!

Hi drapelady,
Welcome to DG! You're gonna love it here--so many knowledgeable and helpful folks. I'm from Louisiana--Bossier City. Live over here in Vicksburg, MS now (been here for almost 30 years). Lover your birdbath area. We just finished building our house about 2 years ago and I've spent LOT'S of my time landscaping (5 acres). Hope to get time soon to do some "fine tuning" with the nice little extras like a pretty bird bath area. Working on my butterfly garden by my patio right now.

Hi Drapelady, welcome to our cosy garden forum, your new to gardening, well hate to inform you, it becomes infectious, you'll be a plant nut before you know it, like the rest of us. I know from experience that the plant labels are just a general guide, you will soon learn about the temp in your area and full sun for some of us (like me in Scotland UK) will be equal to bright light for some others, I have found over the years that the best plant info comes from garden books, these are really expensive however, so go to your local library and look for books on plants/landscaping for beginners, even an plant encyclopedia is a good Christmas gift idea as they will have plants listed that are originally from all over the world, and many of our garden plants are these days, they tell you the growing conditions, the mature height and heat most plants require, they are good for cross checking, it might save you time and most important, money, if you buy plants that are just really unsuitable for your region/zone, but on saying that, us gardeners get to be quite clever and can often adapt conditions to enable us to grow plants that years ago, we could only dream about, so be patient, read all you can without books that are toooooo complicated, and before you know it, you'll be on your way to being a happy gardener. good luck, never be too shy to ask. WeeNel.

Thankyou to all of you who have made me feel so welcome. I have been extremely busy trying to finish a drape order to install for one of my customers tomorrow. But every little while I check to catch up on the latest from DG. Ya'll have made me smile alot and I thankyou for all of your responses.
And yes Weenel, to see my little garden flourish, is quite addicting and peaceful. I'm even talking to my plants:) for which my husband just shakes his head. My birthday is tommorrow and he asked me did I want a bag of dirt for my present. I immediately said "Yes I do, and a very big one so I can get back to planting this weekend when I have completed these drape orders. Anyway, it's a pleasure to be a part of ya'll now. Thanks again.