I took these two photos Friday morning 5/20/2022, of our Kings Mantle Bush, we have two of them and they are drought resistant, which means the bush lives on but no flowers unless they get water.
The day Bob finished painting the house and I planted ferns out front, I got so excited I decided to put a little bit of water on the ferns and 3 bushes every 3rd day.
You can see the bush is truly a king's mantle of flowers with only a few days of water, if we get rain, the bush will be magnificent.
I am focused now on the few drought resistant plants we have left in saving them without using up much of our water supply which is limited.
I am going to try pouring cold left over coffee on them with the water. I read that it will make them grow. only black coffee and also it is healthy to put coffee grounds around the bushes.
Stay Tuned for Results
PS I noticed when I watered them today, something is eating the stem of the flower and they are dropping the blooms.
The correct name is Thunbergia erecta, commonly called clockvine by some and Kings Mantle by others. I love the name Kings Mantle and that is what we call it.
This is the LINK to South Florida Plant Guide if you want more info. It is originally from Africa.
Not sure what you will see in color since all computers are different.
On mine they are brilliant purple with yellow centers as they are in our yard.
Bob first wife bought the bush way back in 1970 and when we moved from the house in St Pete to here we moved the bush with us. It is easy to take cuttings and make others, but we only have two.
It is a vigorous growing plant and in our tropics produces flowers year round. I suggest you look at the link to see what it will do if we ever get rain...we try to keep it about 4 or 5 feet tall but it will get much bigger if we let it. It also comes with white blooms, but I have never seen one. Ours is the lesser known Blue Moon variety. Bob doesn't remember where she found this one, but we have not found them in our garden shops.
From Wikipedia
21 comments:
I love that y'all have had this plant for so long! Louis Dean had an ivy that was his school teaching days - alas, we have it no longer! Same thing with his aloe Vera plant. We have some but not from the original.
Amber has an ivy from 2006 when she and Mike married. Our cat, Tabitha, nearly destroyed it but I got to it in time to repot what I could and it is doing well. The rest I am trying to root so she will have two pots!
Wow, it is stunning! I am guessing the name comes from the color of purple of a king's mantle. They look just a bit like Morning Glories. I want to know how they react to their morning coffee!
Beautiful plant. Maybe you could layer a few of the branches and if they take root plant them along that fence which needs some privacy. If they survive with only the water heaven throws at them (even if they don't flower) they would fill in the 'view'. xxx Mr T and F
We had one long ago. It froze and never recovered. I liked the woody stems.
It's beautiful and I see the same colors you do on my monitor. I like the name of it too.
Hello,
It is a beautiful plant, I love the color of the flowers. I heard that coffee grounds are good for plants. It is nice you are trying to save this plant.
Take care, enjoy your day!
Hari Om
It is a stunning creeper; I always loved how plants would just take off in the tropics... YAM xx
We had a 10yr drought here in Oz back in late 1990s early 2000s (called the Millennium Drought) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000s_Australian_drought - Very strict water rationing definitely no water for the garden. We caught the short shower water in buckets then lugged them down the hall to pour over plants. Our top loading washing machine drains via a hose hooked over the laundry trough so we put on an extension hose and ran it out the back door to water the nearest plants. It was interesting to see what lived and what didn’t survive- many of what was sold as drought tolerant didn’t. Surprisingly my roses did.
Bye the bye some Thunbergia specials are declared noxious weeds here - grandiflora is one. Grows huge and spreads for quite a distance covering anything and everything in its path
It is a gorgeous color...
That's glorious! How I wish I could send you some of our rain. There's a regular downpour happening out my window, and I have to load up the girls in a minute for their groomer appointment.
Yes, I'd heard that about coffee; the grounds, too. One of the ladies I used to work with used to gather the wet coffee grounds at days end and keep in an old coffee can. Egg shells, too. I'm interested in hearing how yours respond!
It is a beautiful plant and I love its color. I need to try those coffee grounds.
I loved them - so sorry that there is such a terrible drought. I think you are doing what you can to save them.
Kings Mantle bush I love the name and color. Looks very delicate happy to hear it is a survivor
Hugs Cecilia
wow, that is stunning! love the color too
We sure hope this is the year the droughts end...I really like the shade of purple these guys are!
Beautiful flowers and to see the bush covered with them would be gorgeous .
Beautiful flowers. I'm so sorry about your drought.
Florida that has the most thunderstorms now has a drought is totally strange but I suppose it is part of the new global weather. We just had a severe storm thar killed 4 people and snapped gyro pole and sent trees and cars hurling. Lots of damage in some spots while others were left untouchwped. Your blossom colour is very bright and beautiful. May the coffee idea work for you.nice that Bob was able to paint.
Lovely flowers. I have seen them here but don't know what we call them. Drought is awful and I feel sorry for you trying to keep plants alive. We had that problem years ago just as one of your other commenters said. us on the other hand have had non stop rain .
I'm having trouble with my blogger account I can't sign in to my ADventure blog but can to my Birthday Bear blog. Weird.
I think I've fixed it after working on it nearly all day.
That bush is so pretty. I'm sorry about the issue with something eating the stem.
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