Plectranthus

After my last post, a couple of people commented on the purple shrub in one of my photos, so I thought I'd do a post on the Plectranthus.

Plectranthus, with some 350 species, is a genus of warm-climate plants occurring largely in the southern hemisphere, in sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, India and the Indonesian archipelago down to Australia and some Pacific islands. It is closely related to Solenostemon and known as the spurflowers. Several species are grown as ornamental plants, as leaf vegetables, as root vegetables for their edible tubers, or as medicine

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plectranthus

I have a number of these plants growing in the garden as they are very easy to grow, tolerate shade (of which there is much in my garden) and dry shade at that.  The one photographed in my last post is Plectranthus ecklonii 'Medley-Wood'. 

 



This one is behind the chook pen and is huge, sprawling everywhere and looks magnificent when in flower which it is now.

This one is Plectranthus argentatus.  It has lovely silver green foliage and pink flowers.  I've been poking pieces of this in the ground around the garden.  No need for much of a root, it takes so easily.

This one is either Plectranthus ciliatus of Plectranthus nico, I'm not sure.  It is a good ground cover and grows where other things won't.  I have recently pruned this heavily, so don't have much to show in the way of flowers or foliage.

This shrubby one is Plectranthus 'Mona Lavender' and is fairly new to my garden.  I love the dark purple stems of the flower head.

I also planted one of these, a Plectranthus oertendahlii but the chook has just about scratched it out of existence.  I've put a protective barrier around it now so hopefully it will recover.

Photo source
http://www.igarden.com.au/pics/plectranthus-oertendahlii-lrg.jpg

So there you have it, the lovely and versatile Plectranthus.  Thank you for taking the time to read this very garden focused post.  Perhaps it was time for some "Gardened Moments".

 Anne  xx