I have a Tibouchina which has flowered well over the last 3 or 4
weeks. However it is an ungainly thing, about 30 inches high with
bare, woody stem to 20 inches, but healthy, leafy growth above. When
I was given it, it was about 8 inches with 2 shoots above soil level.
A friend suggested taking a cutting of one shoot. This I tried but
the cutting didn't root.
Has anyone grown Tibouchina?
Please can you tell me what to do with it now. Is there any chance
of it sprouting lower down?
It's in a light place in my living room with other house plants. I'd
like to get it through the winter and put it outside for next summer.
(No greenhouse).
Any advice or words of experience gratefully received.

Pam in Bristol

In article ,
Pam Moore writes:
| I have a Tibouchina which has flowered well over the last 3 or 4
| weeks. However it is an ungainly thing, about 30 inches high with
| bare, woody stem to 20 inches, but healthy, leafy growth above. When
| I was given it, it was about 8 inches with 2 shoots above soil level.
| A friend suggested taking a cutting of one shoot. This I tried but
| the cutting didn't root.
| Has anyone grown Tibouchina?

Yes.

| Please can you tell me what to do with it now. Is there any chance
| of it sprouting lower down?

Not in my experience.

| It's in a light place in my living room with other house plants. I'd
| like to get it through the winter and put it outside for next summer.
| (No greenhouse).

Keep it well ventilated, not too wet but not dry and light, and
it will come through.

Take some more cuttings next year, and put them in sharp sand in
the shade. I have succeeded a couple of times, failed another
couple, and have some that rooted and then went chlorotic.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Pam Moore writes
I have a Tibouchina which has flowered well over the last 3 or 4
weeks. However it is an ungainly thing, about 30 inches high with
bare, woody stem to 20 inches, but healthy, leafy growth above. When
I was given it, it was about 8 inches with 2 shoots above soil level.
A friend suggested taking a cutting of one shoot. This I tried but
the cutting didn't root.
Has anyone grown Tibouchina?
Please can you tell me what to do with it now. Is there any chance
of it sprouting lower down?
It's in a light place in my living room with other house plants. I'd
like to get it through the winter and put it outside for next summer.
(No greenhouse).
Any advice or words of experience gratefully received.

Only bumbling experience, I'm afraid .. but I love our Tibouchina. Got
it last year, kept it outside next to a wall in a sunny west-facing spot
... and it went mad! Huge flowers, never fewer than ten, all summer long.
But, of course, it must have felt right back home in Mexico then!
Brought it in to a North-East-facing unheated porch in autumn, and
pruned it (to make it possible to walk past it). It weathered the
winter, but very nearly died: it ended up just one stick, with no leaves
at all. I put it back outside and fed and watered it (it likes a lot of
water). It took until July before it had any leaves, and it never did
flower, but now it is big and bushy (it has sprouted all over,
especially low down) and looks as if it might be about to flower, and of
course it'll have to come in, and I'm wondering whether to keep it in
the living room or to give it to my daughter who has a (north-facing)
conservatory. And I too would love to take cuttings, if I knew when.

Don't you love the feel of the leaves, though?

--
Klara, Gatwick basin

On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 16:12:18 +0100, Klara wrote:

Don't you love the feel of the leaves, though?

Yes. The leaves feel like velvet, the flowers look like velvet!

However it looks as though I amdestined to have a straggly stick of a
plant for part of the year.
Thanks for the good advice.
There was a biggish one (6ft) at Heligan, in the little summer house
in the Italian garden in 2003. That was pretty straggly also.

Pam in Bristol

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 16:12:18 +0100, Klara wrote:

Don't you love the feel of the leaves, though?

Yes. The leaves feel like velvet, the flowers look like velvet!

However it looks as though I amdestined to have a straggly stick of a
plant for part of the year.
Thanks for the good advice.
There was a biggish one (6ft) at Heligan, in the little summer house
in the Italian garden in 2003. That was pretty straggly also.

Pam in Bristol

Pam it should start flowering in the Late Summer/Autumn, thru the winter. So
in the Spring I hard prune all mine to about 2", repot and feed as required,
then when the new growth is about 9" to 12" I cut it all off for cuttings,
leaving just one set of leaves per stem, when they recover from this they
goes out, spending the summer in a warm but not particularly sunny spot
until they come back into flower. Around mid October I bring them in still
in flower, normally all gone over by end of Jan. T. grandifolia which we
also have has a very similar timing but T. paratropica flowers from Mid
summer on and is a lot hardier and tends to be herbaceous in habit (dies
back below soil level each winter) unfortunately it is white not purple!

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collection of Clematis viticella (cvs)

Charlie Pridham Writes
Pam it should start flowering in the Late Summer/Autumn, thru the
winter. So in the Spring I hard prune all mine to about 2", repot and
feed as required, then when the new growth is about 9" to 12" I cut it
all off for cuttings, leaving just one set of leaves per stem, when
they recover from this they goes out, spending the summer in a warm but
not particularly sunny spot until they come back into flower. Around
mid October I bring them in still in flower, normally all gone over by
end of Jan. T. grandifolia which we also have has a very similar timing
but T. paratropica flowers from Mid summer on and is a lot hardier and
tends to be herbaceous in habit (dies back below soil level each
winter) unfortunately it is white not purple!

Charlie, I'm not sure which we have, but it has quite large flowers. The
first summer it flowered all summer, but that was presumably something
the nursery had done, e.g. prune it much earlier?
But as we have no conservatory, do you think it will survive in the
house over winter, or should I board it with someone with a conservatory
over winter (thus presumably missing all the flowers, since it seems now
to have rejigged itself to winter flowering)?

--
Klara, Gatwick basin

"Klara" wrote in message
...

Charlie, I'm not sure which we have, but it has quite large flowers. The
first summer it flowered all summer, but that was presumably something
the nursery had done, e.g. prune it much earlier?
But as we have no conservatory, do you think it will survive in the
house over winter, or should I board it with someone with a conservatory
over winter (thus presumably missing all the flowers, since it seems now
to have rejigged itself to winter flowering)?

--
Klara, Gatwick basin

Its almost certain you will have T. urvilleana. The main problem with
overwintering in the house is its size when brought in! since there is no
point cutting it back until flowering is over.
I expect that it had been kept originally in a heated greenhouse, hence its
confusion as to what season it was. Other people (not me) can grow it
outside down here. it will go down to 0 but any lower and you normally lose
it, or it takes so long to recover it fails to flower the following year.
Once you have some cuttings, why not try a bubble wrap shelter outside
against a warm wall, so you can cover for cold nights and enjoy the flowers.

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collection of Clematis viticella (cvs)

In message , Charlie
Pridham writes
Its almost certain you will have T. urvilleana. The main problem with
overwintering in the house is its size when brought in! since there is
no point cutting it back until flowering is over. I expect that it had
been kept originally in a heated greenhouse, hence its confusion as to
what season it was. Other people (not me) can grow it outside down
here. it will go down to 0 but any lower and you normally lose it, or
it takes so long to recover it fails to flower the following year. Once
you have some cuttings, why not try a bubble wrap shelter outside
against a warm wall, so you can cover for cold nights and enjoy the flowers.

Thanks, Charlie. I think I'm willing to sacrifice a good bit of living
space for the beauty of it!

Then presumably I can try to root the cuttings in spring when it needs
to be pruned, and follow your plan! I think I can find a warm corner
even in this cold part of Sussex...

--
Klara, Gatwick basin