Also known as Sky Flower, Thunbergia Grandiflora is an underused twining vine that hails from India, and is related to the much more common annual Black Eyed Susan Vine. The structure of the flowers is similar, but Sky Flower's pendant racemes flaunt dreamily colored blooms 2 to 3 inches wide! A little hardier than its smaller counterparts, Sky Flower may be considered perennial and returns from the roots where the freezes aren't too severe and is a safe bet for zones 9b through 11. Anywhere else it may be grown as an annual with vigorous and speedy growth to match its large size, quickly blanketing walls, trees, or whatever else you plant it by, where it will attract hummingbirds until the first frost. This is the perfect plant to give your rainforest garden a natural jungle feel as you watch the huge 8 inch leaves slowly consume a stone wall or cloak that unsightly fence and then drape it with glorious blooms. This plant can take many situations, but make sure you give it a lot of moisture and even more room to grow!
this is a very pretty vine, i haven't given it much thought to add subtle blue tones to my warm/hot colored garden, but i will have to think about cool tones also.
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That is a lovely vine flowers. Its one of the common vines that grows in my place but often dread it when its overgrown as one may not know where to start or end.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing about this vine is that it attracts ants - and these are the fierce ones.
Thanks for adding me as a follower in my blog.
This is a very pretty vine. I have seen it grown at beach resorts and also the secret garden. James is right. In Malaysia, it attract a lot of fierce red ants, their bites are very painful. It also attracts black bumble bees in the mornings, which I don't mind.
ReplyDeleteWhile the Blue Trumpet Vine, as we commonly call it, has such a beautiful flower ... unfortunately it's a declared environmental weed over here in my home state of Queensland. It has vigorously spread through the rainforests up north destroying native vegetation. It just loves our conditions too much!
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog site too ... it's something new for me as I just started it last year.
Your comment about the Callistemon was spot on ... simply one of the best of our natives.
Ants are attracted to the nectar on the buds, which they would normally get from aphids in a symbiotic relationship. In this case I think nectar is secreted to attract ants as a defense mechanism, since they will die defending their source of sugars. Since not all specimens ooze the stuff, I wonder if its related to the health of the plant and if its a response to a weakened state. Anyways, I found beads of nectar on my Aechmea Gamosepala bromeliad the other day and I know why the ants like it. Its rather tasty!
ReplyDeleteI love skyflowers! I see them often in gardens, and they are so beautiful, hanging in blue-purple chains from arbors. They grow very, very rampantly here Central Florida, and I have a deep-set vine phobia, so I will not grow them. Is there an official name for "vine phobia"? Fortunately, others do grow skyflowers, so I can still enjoy them. Personally, I grow no vines other than gloriosa lilies (they are well-behaved). Oh, and the pothos that I can't turn back time on. (Is that the source of my phobia?) And I do let wild corky-stem passionvines have their way (for the butterflies).
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, I don't grow them either since my passionflower vines are all that my garden can take, as they are pretty vigorous themselves! I took those photos at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens in Gainesville, but don't have room for one of my own.
ReplyDeleteThis vine grows along a fence I pass ono a regular basis, and it never fails to draw my attention. It is an absolutely gorgeous blue flower. I have tried to find a place in my own garden for this beauty.
ReplyDeleteHi,Thunbergia grandiflora is a grand looking plant and gives a garden a wow factor when it grows and covers profusely a wall or climbs up a tree. Different Philodendrons are great to let them climb up trees to give that quick feel of a rainforest. The Jaboticaba tree is wonderful how it bears its fruit on the trunk and branches. We all love the fruit to eat fresh. It is very morish but hard to describe the taste, not just sweet. Once they start bearing fruit they are very prolific.
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HI DEXTER! Ooooooh, pretty flowers.
ReplyDeleteI had one of these thunbergia last summer, and had the same problem with it as did the nursery operator who sold it to me: it would NOT grow. I think the entire summer it grew to about eight inches in length,though it did flower fairly regularly. It may have been a different species, but it was called skyflower. Maybe it just wasn't warm enough here to suit its needs. I'll try it again this year, because I'm stubborn that way.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog by the way read my last article.
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