Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Plectranthus Mona Lavender


The third week of September and the show is just beginning.



Full shade.



Update, to answer some comments:

My plants came from GRDN in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn in early summer - and I asked Suzanne to order them as she did not know them. She ordered from her wholesale grower. I would call your local nurseries and ask them about availability and request it. This Plectranthus (developed at Kirstenbosch, in South Africa!) is becoming quite well known, so I think it might not be too hard to find, for them. If they don't know it, tell them it will bloom until frost.

I planted it in...I'm guessing, June? It had some little, forced, flowers then, and was a manageable size, 6". The first flowers disappeared while they grew big and leafy. The plants are now almost two feet tall and wide. But I have used them as seasonal annuals in fall before, so perhaps nurseries still have them - they certainly will look good to customers right now.

12 comments:

  1. So beautiful. My favorite is the third photo with close up detail.

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  2. Must grow this plant! Where can I find it?

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  3. Gorgeous! i have a full shade spot that this would look really happy in...i have the same question as Ellen...where can i find this plant?!

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  4. A late congratulations on yours & Vince's anniversary. I love your beautiful sweet ode to Vince, how touching.
    & this Mona, she will be most welcome in my garden. I have lots of shade.

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  5. I hope this isn't disappointing in that it will make Mona seem less rare, but for the last two years I've seen large plants of Mona Lavender for sale at various big box stores (Home Depot, Lowes), usually in hanging baskets.

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  6. Klaus, au contraire - it has been very successful. In my neck of the woods, far fom box stores, I see it rarely.

    How's your dry shade going?

    Cyclamen?

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  7. Thanks for asking about the dry shade. It's an ongoing project, so I'm trying not to rush. So far, even despite the droughty summer, I seem to have been able to get native tiarella and dicentra and non-native corydalis lutea to establish. They look like they are prospering, though I started with very small plugs under a Japanese maple on a slope. Last year we put some shrubs into that general area (though not right under that tree) and native aronia is not looking so good after the dry spell. A Styrax americanus is looking nice though and even bloomed its first spring, as is Hamamelis vernalis though it never bloomed due to deer (or woodchuck, or vole) pruning. Last weekend, we put in a half dozen native bugbanes (still cimicifuga to me), as I've read conflicting reports about the degree to which they can tolerate dry conditions. I'm opting to experiment since I like them a lot and am willing to irrigate until they get established. I've been studying epimediums and a few other things, but nothing else has quite seduced me yet. I want to really love all the plants around me, which is completely subjective, so I resist taking the plunge for something for purely utilitarian reasons. Also, I'm thinking about bulbs just now (indeed cyclamen!), since it's the season for it, and bulbs should like summering amidst the tree roots yet having all the sun and relative moisture in spring before leaf-out. I'm also mulling edgeworthia, which you mentioned in a post months ago, and I think I really want but hesitate planting a marginally hardy shrub in fall. I did succumb to impulse last weekend and bought an unusual Chinese medicinal shrub related to daphne called Wikstroemia at a local nursery. It's got delicate ferny leaves, tiny sulphur yellow tubular flowers, blooms in fall, and likes shade (but moist shade they said), so it's not right for the dry shade problem corner. I have to figure out where that should go. I sometimes envy you the terrace, because I like to think a smaller garden allows one to be more focused, ruthlessly edit -- and resist the siren song of impulse buys.

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  8. I love this plant, but never knew its name. Saw it in containers a couple of years ago and failed to buy one. Then when I wanted one... you know the rest. Thanks for the ID. Yours are lovely.

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  9. Hello Marie,
    this Plectranthus is beautiful!
    I'm Italian, here is not, can you help me find it? I wanted this Plectranthus!!!!
    Is so long that I'm looking for this plant! Thanks

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  10. Klaus, I don't suppose you want to write a blog? You have lot of good material :-) Go for the edgeworthia (at least 4 hours solid sun) and yes you can plant in fall, it's the best time to plant...

    webb, you're welcome.

    romitta? I am guessing you don't live in the States, so I can't really find a plectanthus for you. Keep googling and tell your local nurseries about it.

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  11. I tried in Italy, but is not sold!
    That's why I'm trying to google, and I appeared this blog ..
    Could you get me a cutting?

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