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Is this a bit like Shazam but for plants? Hurrah!

sarah.bearesarah.beare Posts: 4
in Plants
Any ideas? It has small bright blue flowers, reddish stems, and a wayward creeping habit a bit like a periwinkle.

 

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  • sarah.bearesarah.beare Posts: 4

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,361
    Ceratostigma willmottianum


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • MarlorenaMarlorena Posts: 8,437
    edited March 2019
    ..the wayward creeping habit of a periwinkle suggests plumbaginoides rather than willmottianum wouldn't you say?…   is it like a ground cover?..

    [I know it's a pain when someone else chimes in with something different..]
    East Anglia, England
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,361
    Marlorena said:
    ..the wayward creeping habit of a periwinkle suggests plumbaginoides rather than willmottianum wouldn't you say?…   is it like a ground cover?..

    [I know it's a pain when someone else chimes in with something different..]
    the description sounds more like it but not the photo  to me. I never mind being disagreed with :) 


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • sarah.bearesarah.beare Posts: 4
    Ceratostigma willmottianum or Ceratostigma plumbaginoides... I am delighted to know the Ceratostigma bit of the name (and I kinda like the Chinese Plumbago old school name too). You are stars for telling me!

    Is the difference in how the plant grows, in its habit? I took the cuttings from a plant that was flourishing but cramped in a corner of a small front garden, so its true habit was hard to tell, then I saw it in a public garden border - looked like it was cut back to promote a low-growing bushy-ness  but woudn't make an upstanding shrub of any height.
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,361
    You may have seen two different plants, Sarah. They both have the bright blue flowers but plumbaginoides dies back to the ground in winter, spreads by  root and is about a foot tall. Willmottianum is a shrub and keeps its framework through winter, it's about 3 foot tall


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • sarah.bearesarah.beare Posts: 4
    Thank you. I guess I will find out in due course which I have got depending on what happens to it! The plant I pinched from seems to have died back as I couldn't fid it the other day, walking up that road! I think it's gorgeous. The blue is so startling!
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,361
    It's a great plant, I've lost willmottianum, I need to replace it and treat it better this time.


    In the sticks near Peterborough
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