Herself’s Houston Garden

These pictures were taken in April shortly after I planted the plectranthus. Since then it has put up more blooms each week and is lovely. Flowers come in white, pink, and purple. They are best loved for their ability to grow well and flower in shade. Purple flowers appear in early spring and the plant will flower until the cold weather settles in.

Leaves are dark green topside, purple on the underside.

This is a rapidly growing shrub, and can reach 30″ in height, but usually remains under 2′. Width is about equal to height.

Plectranthus grows well in part sun to full shade. In sun it will be smaller than if grown in the shade. Leaves have a more intense color in the sun especially the underside.

Extremely easy to propagate by cuttings, you don’t even need rooting hormone, it may in fact hurt your cuttings. Cuttings will also root in water.

Water often, it prefers moist soil. But once established will tolerate occasional drought.

Pinch back ends occasionally to keep it from getting leggy. Also blooms appear on new growth so a bit of trimming in the early spring will encourage more blooms.

While this plant is a member of the mint and ivy family ‘Mona Lavender’ has been breed to be better behaved and will not take over your garden. It does much better in the ground than in pots, probably because of its preference for constantly mildly damp soil.

Frost is a problem for these plants. Cut them back in the spring if frost damaged and they should bounce back just fine.

Plectranthus also do very well in hanging baskets.

These are usually planted in masses. I just have the one now, but will take cuttings once the plant is settled.

These are native plants in eastern Africa through to southern Arabia. There are over 350 varieties of Plectranthus.

Propagate by cuttings. They should easily root in water or moist soil with out rooting hormone.

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