By Jeanette Castanon
During a recent conference I was gifted a beautiful plumbago. Upon returning home I repotted it and it has provided me with some beautiful blue to purple flowers. It has been quite happy in a relatively shaded part of my apartment patio and has not needed as frequent watering the longer it has had to establish. I was recently at HEB and saw that they had some available to purchase. If you do decide to take one home they do not have many pest or disease problems and if you plant them in the ground in a sunny spot they will thrive even more than if they are kept in a large pot.
They bloom non-stop from late spring to the first freeze. In some winters or in protected sites, they may remain evergreen. Other times they will freeze to the ground. Simply cut them back and they’ll re-emerge in early spring. In really cold areas, they benefit from a layer of mulch to protect the roots in winter.
Other than that, plumbago is basically maintenance-free. No need to fertilize or worry about insects. Once established, it’s fairly drought tolerant, but may need supplemental water when things stay really dry.
It grows in sun, but it also grows really well in partial shade, as long as it gets adequate light. At maturity, it will be 3-4′ high and 4-6′ wide.
For more information, call the AgriLife office at 498-4071 in Odessa or at 686-4700 in Midland, email [email protected] or visit aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu or westtexasgardening.org.
