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Oxypetalum coeruleum |
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| | Mingling nicely with gaura and other perennials in April of its second year in our Texas garden |
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Native of Central and South America that can supposedly be used as an annual in Pennsylvania's climate. In my first attempt, the first-year plants never flowered (and of course didn't return for a second year). A second attempt didn't fare any better – but once we moved to the Houston area, chances of success improved. We purchased two 'Heavenborn' cultivars as annuals from a local nursery, and those started showing off their five-petaled icy blue flowers a week later. They kept on blooming on somewhat unruly stems all year, and somewhat to my surprise, stayed evergreen even through a harsh January freeze, pushing up new growth by late February.
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| | Lots of flowers, not a great garden habit. I'll have to experiment with how to make it work in mixed plantings. |
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| | Skipper feeding on its flowers one July morning |
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| | Milkweed-like seedpods in late October |
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In our garden, this plant grows in the following area: back fence border About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Oxypetalum coeruleum
Visitors to this page have left the following comments| John | Feb 25, 2013 | I had self collected seed of this 3 years ago . In the next Spring it germinated erratically -very poor. The next 2 years nothing. I put my remaing seed into cell packs under a dome and on a heating mat -soil temp 85-90 degrees. In 3 days I had 100% germination. Here in Portland Oregon I have to pot up first year plants in full sun and over winter them. The flowers are beautiful-i cut them all. If you leave them on the plant they will set very quickly and form the typical milkweed shaped pod and will stop flowering . |
- Seed from '05 trade. Baggy 70F (58%G, 7-20d)
- Same seed as above. Baggy 70F (100%G, 13-20d)
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common mis-spellings: caeruleum
Last modified:
April 08, 2018
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