Yes. Yes, I can.
POSTED BY KIM — This is a picture of annual heliotrope that is currently blooming its head off in my garage under some fluorescent lights. I saw a picture in a book last fall of someone in California who had grown a heliotrope plant for several years and pruned it as a standard. Gorgeous!
At the time, I had a small one growing happily in a container on my deck, so I figured I could either throw it out at the end of the season, or give it a haircut and see if I could make it live through the winter in my garage.
You might be able to see in the picture how floppy my specimen is. The stem, while woody, is thin enough that I think in the spring when it goes back outside, I can stake it up so that it has a mini-standard form.
If you grow annuals and you’ve never tried heliotrope — do it! It always makes the lists of fragrant annual flowers, and the blue/purple color of the blooms is hard to beat. The foliage stays a nice, solid, clean green, and it loves hot afternoon sun. This is one annual that I will definitely get more of when the weather warms up.
I have a ways to go before I reach this level of perfection.
3 Comments
April 1, 2009 at 7:58 am
Kim, I grew a Lantana into a standard several years ago. It actually became a little tree or shrub. The thickness of the trunk was about two thumbs around.( my own measurement system.) It is no more, but it lasted 3 or 4 years.
October 6, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I have been growing a heliotrope in my backyard for about 10 years (maybe even longer–I don’t recall when I put it in but it was one of the first when we moved into the house 12 years ago). I live in Southern California and am in zone 23/22 for the Sunset people and 9 for the USDA people. It’s on the north and west side of my yard under some maleleukas has has been going strong. I need to really trim it back this fall and would also like some help on trimming it back. It’s getting a bit rangy after we redid the yard last year and put in new watering.
October 6, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Steve — I’m jealous! I can’t say as I’m that familiar with growing in zone 9 (we’re zone 5/6 here in St. Louis), but seems to me if you trim it back this fall, you will be cutting off flower buds for next year — ? But sometimes you do what you have to do, right? But if you can wait until next summer and prune after flowering, you’ll still have a nice show the following year. To create a standard, you just start snipping off branches off the main trunk, if your plant is lucky enough to be conveniently formed that way. Sometimes there are multiple trunks or the main trunk is growing sideways or something goofy and it’s just not going to work on that particular plant. Enjoy! Send me a picture!