I bought this plant last year and planted it in front of my house, in partial shade behind a patch of banana trees in my hot, dry California SF East Bay yard. Even though I planted it in early summer, it survived the dry season with minimal additional water, grew like a weed and now 15 months later it is about 7-8 feet tall and about 6 feet wide. I've only seen one other in my area (at the Merritt College landscape department) and I'm surprised they're not way more common. I've never seen them for sale in any of the local nurseries so I had to buy it online.
I never fertilize it, I water it maaaaybe once a month if I remember (and in our climate, there's zero rain from June to November so it wasn't getting anything I didn't give it). It always looks beautiful and is completely covered with little dark purple flowers every time I look at it. It probably wouldn't fare as well in our full hot summer sun, but I am always impressed by how nice it looks. It does a great job hiding an electrical panel on the wall behind it that's around head height. I've only needed to prune it a couple of times to keep a branch from growing out into the pathway.
It does drop a lot of tiny little flowers all over the place, but it's in a corner of my yard that I don't mind. If you put it near a patio or something, sweeping up the debris might get tiresome.
I bought this plant last year and planted it in front of my house, in partial shade behind a patch of banana trees in my hot, dry California SF East Bay yard. Even though I planted it in early summer, it survived the dry season with minimal additional water, grew like a weed and now 15 months later it is about 7-8 feet tall and about 6 feet wide. I've only seen one other in my area (at the Merritt College landscape department) and I'm surprised they're not way more common. I've never seen them for sale in any of the local nurseries so I had to buy it online.
I never fertilize it, I water it maaaaybe once a month if I remember (and in our climate, there's zero rain from June to November so it wasn't getting anything I didn't give it). It always looks beautiful and is completely covered with little dark purple flowers every time I look at it. It probably wouldn't fare as well in our full hot summer sun, but I am always impressed by how nice it looks. It does a great job hiding an electrical panel on the wall behind it that's around head height. I've only needed to prune it a couple of times to keep a branch from growing out into the pathway.
It does drop a lot of tiny little flowers all over the place, but it's in a corner of my yard that I don't mind. If you put it near a patio or something, sweeping up the debris might get tiresome.
This one of my indoor tropical plants in my collection. It is a moderate to fast growing plant. When it is warmer in Nebraska I place the plant outside.facing south to receive an abundance of sunshine. The plant starts to grow rapidly. I check for pests and fungus daily; never seen any problems. The Iochroma plant produces beautiful dark lavender to purple cluster of flowers which attract the hummingbirds in the area. Pictures are available upon request.
Inherited this plant (purple) from my mother who purchased it at Logee's. Planted it on a east facing wall as I am in sunny southern California. It has grown to over 9 feet tall and has been blooming its head off! Oh my do the hummer's LOVE IT, so do the praying mantis's and I even had to break up a fight between them on this plant! Blooms nearly year round for me, I've just recently pruned it back hard as it was growing into the space under my eaves. It gets regular irrigation, but not overwatered. Does shed some.
Like others have said, it was slow to get started the first of May. By July, I was amazed as my purple Iochroma was about 6 feet tall with many purple groupings of flowers! I didn't have any hummingbirds, but our area doesn't have hummingbirds for some reason. I just brought mine in last week before our first frost (Nov. 13th) and the plant was well over 7 ft. tall. After reading what others have said about this plant, there was a moderate drop of leaves and newly developed flowers that was a little bit depressing as I wanted more flowers. During the summer, my plant required much water and fertilizer that I bought at Logee's. After I fertilized the plants, there was a surge in flowers! I am definitely not an expert but learn by experience! I intend to buy more for next summer, but what to do with them over winter so my husband doesn't scream!