Purple, low to the ground. I bought this at a nursery, no label, but I just love the colors.
one more plant I need help ID
Huh - I've never seen it in that color, but it looks like Torenia?
Look at this one -same thing? They also call it "Wishbone Flower" (why, I couldn't tell you.....)
http://www.floridata.com/ref/T/tore_fou.cfm
Thanks! I think that is it. I found an identification for it here on DG:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/68533/
One gardener commented that her kids look inside the blossoms for the "wishbone". May be "Indigo Moon" or "Clown Blue".
Pagancat, what color do you normally see this plant in?
I could have sworn I had a better pic, but you can see the color variety that was in my mix last year.
Yours are more purple/violet looking and mine look blue. I need to go back outside and take a look and see if it's more blue or purple...
The dark ones, like Gemini_sage showed. It's really possible that yours are more purple than my monitor shows, too.
I saw some really nice ones, yesterday - a kind of mauve and rust combo...
hi, glad you got your id
this link has a good closeup of the wishbone just in front of the throat of the bloom and if you scroll down some of the pictures show some different colors it comes in
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/163266/
it is such a cool flower, a friend recommended it to me last season and I tried it and really loved it ~ it bloomed all summer, I had a solid purple color :)
Trailing Torenia is becoming more popular, it is a nice plant for ground cover in hot humid climates. It is perennial here>
This message was edited Feb 20, 2009 8:10 PM
Dale, that is incredible. I hope mine will drop seeds and look like that next year!
Torenia now comes in a lovely yellow as well. I saw it at a nursery in south Louisiana a couple of months ago. I regret that I didn't buy any!
Jo,
That yellow torenia is a species, it will reseed itself. It is one of the parents of the trailing types that we see now. They crossed the low growing yellow with the upright blue. They are hybrids so they don't make from seed, cuttings only. Sorry Lili.
This message was edited Feb 20, 2009 8:12 PM
I've been growing Torenia ('Happy Faces' mix originally from Burpees) for several years now from saved seed, and they seem to grow out "true" as far as I can tell... the colors usually come true also, although i get some mixing, either from x-pollination or just from those teeny seeds ending up in the wrong row of the seed starting tray, LOL.
I've been buying flats of Torenia (Clown Blue) for a few years and last year after a mild winter I had plenty of volunteer seedlings by mid summer. Most were true but a small percentage were pink.
Dale, I see you say they are perennials in Florida. Would you say they are mildly spreading or do you think they are a problem for the native plants? I like them for the shade but I worry now they might be a problem since they are seeding themselves.
The upright type are annuals here, they flower themselves to death. The upright types reseed, but, not enough to be a pest.
It is the low growing/spreading type that are perennial here, they are a cross of two species. They do not reseed themselves, they are sterile, but, they do root very easily from cuttings.
Since our summers are very long the upright types are not 'fashionable' anymore, they only last about 3-4 months - you hardly ever see in the nurseries - they have been replaced by the trailing type. Over the past 5 years there have been more introductions (new colors) of the trailers, but, they are still not wildly popular.
