A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Blue Plumbago

"Blue Plumbago" - Caught my eye today, dunno - I'm on this blue kick (should I psychoanalyze that?) but I saw the key phrase "quick to spread" Scary!
Thoughts?
Thanks

lol yep I have the same reaction to aggressive plants. But you can bury a pot with them in it and that can curb it's spread if it's by root.

Mary - this plant can/does spread into grass and become uncontrollable. A good friend of mine has it in hers from the previous owners and it's taking over. The interesting thing of it is that there is one area that is a very large circle - must be a fairy ring! It's just the outline of a circle, not filled in, in the center. It returns every year. I'm going to try and take a picture, but it's a large area.

I have some of this stuff too..
But I put it in an area,
where it gets abused, no water, and crowded.
It hasn't been as aggressive for me,
but it's under those conditions that aren't
conducive to it...

I do truely like it for the beautiful color
flowers *bright blue* at a time of year,
when there's not much, late summer...

And when the fall weather comes, and it starts
to get cooler, it has a beautiful bronzed color
on the tips of the leaves...

so, I think it's pretty, and useful...
In the right area...
Just remember that when and if you buy it..

Foot note, I've had my clump for probably
going on 8 years now, and it's not very big...
and I have not tried to pull it out,
*cause it's so abused and slow to spread*...
I might be changing my tune on it someday,
when I go to pull it out and can't.

I have some I love it! It is truly beautiful color and formation. My son wanted this one (blue for him) We put it in the front flower bed and it has done fine so far.

Wow. I didn't know that this stuff could become agressive. Its sold in the UK as a pot plant with no hint that it could be planted out. This is the first summer I've had any plumbago, its in blossom now (& looking great) its in a pot & sounds like that's where it's going to stay.

What sort of minimum temps can it take (I'm in Cornwall, UK & it rains solidly from Oct-Apr).

Hey Rayel,

That is one huge amount of rain. Wish I could have borrowed some of it this summer. It's been so very dry.

Rayel,
I am in growing zone 5 here..
and it's over wintered every year...
I get alot of snow and freezing temp's
and that's from Dec~March.

Like I had posted, I hadn't experienced any
aggressiveness with it yet, but it is a ground
cover, and that's what it's job is to do,
cover ground..
But mines been on the quiet side, but
with it being abused, I can see why...

But I love the blue flowers...
you can't beat it for this time of year.

tkhooper - I exagerated, the rain just feels constant & relatively high precipitation is a feature of this neck of the woods. It tends to be a fairly light drizzle rather than cloudbursts. Sometimes you'd hardly notice it. I was even out in the rain today digging my garden (repairing a raised border). Its been raining the past 2-3 days pretty much all the time yet 1-2 inches down & the soil is bone dry (it is a raised bed, after all).


weezie - Mmmm. It would look good planted against an old dry-stone wall I have in a corner of my garden....

We rarely get deep freezes in Cornwall (we had a couple of days at -6C/21F last winter). The biggest problems are relatively wet conditions coupled with cool temperatures (which can cause rot & tends to kill off the more sensitive plants) & wind coming in off the Atlantic which can rock plants & stop root development.

I'm feeling very tempted to plant it out... I'm sure it won't go haywire & spread everywhere. Heck, even if it does the neighbours would thank me for introducing a pretty flowering plant to combat the ivy... Wouldn't they?

Wow, Lynne, that fairy ring sounds way cool.

I love the blue -- at least the blue in the picture but but from what you're saying weezie the color is pretty close -- Id love that!

I'm thinking I need some kinda creeping something to help curb erosion along my property line on one side, but I wanted to put lilacs along there -- now I'm thinking I could put this under the lilacs. Whaddyas think?

Mine is sorta tall too,
don't know whether it's cause I
have abused it and have some taller
plants all the way around it..
dunno????
But it's not like a short to the
ground type of ground cover,
at least for me..

Ohhh hmm -- would you say 8-12" high? That's what this website is saying...and it says 'good for underplanting shrubs' or something, which is what gave me the idea...? Guess I hoped it'd be a pretty 'dig yer toes in the ground' type of spreading thing - doesn't necessarily have to be groundcover, as long as it'd help with erosion? And...what about it growing in the shade of a lilac bush? Anyone grow it in part to full shade??

Underplanting?! Are we talking about Plumbago capensis here? This is the plant I have in a pot. If we are then this opens up a completely new chapter in my garden. I love the blue of these flowers - very delicate & pretty - & I'd like to see more of it clambering around other shrubs which have shorter flowering seasons.

Rayel - I don't think they are talking about Plumbago capensis. If you look at the first post here, Mary wrote about Ceratostigma plumbaginoides which is a ground cover.

I have the Plumbago that you have, and it grows quite large and bushy if in the proper zone. In Florida, they are even used as hedge bushes. Since I am in zone 6 here in NY, I have to take my 2 pots indoors each year to overwinter, or they would be frozen. Not sure what your temps are there... but I think that this plant would get too tall for underplanting.

Thanx Lynne, I missed that link. I thought it was all too good to be true. While we get better winter temps than New York they are nothing like Florida. Like you, I'll be keeping mine in a pot & moving it under cover soon.