The MGS Forum
Plants for mediterranean gardens => Climbers => Topic started by: John J on September 16, 2013, 09:43:28 AM
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The first flower on my wife's newly-acquired Thunbergia. Thanks again, Yiannos. The plant is actually still in the container while we wait for one of our neighbours to make a frame for it to climb over.
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Our 'Black-eyed Susan' is starting to reawaken as the night-time temperatures begin to fall a little.
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Hi! I need help with identification. Is it grandiflora or laurifolia. 2 pictures of my vine trained to climb the porch roof. Any tips on how to get it to flower profusely? Sometimes the flowers are sparse, sometimes profuse. I can't work it out what makes this plant ticks.
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It looks like Thunbergia laurifolia to me, perhaps the form with pointed side lobes at the base of the leaves, which Geoffrey Herklots called "the Singapore form".
Incidentally, Kew's Plant List currently says that Thunbergia grandiflora is a synonym for Thunbergia alata - I suspect that this is a mistake, as the "blue-flowered Bengal clock vine" (T. grandiflora) is so very different from "black-eyed susan" (T. alata).
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Thank you Alisdair for the quick response. For years I thought it is a grandiflora. I hope members can let me have tips on how to get it to flower profusely. I fertilise it sometimes and not much happens. I neglect it and it flowered profusely. Does it do so when there is a dry spell? Any tips will be greatly appreciated.
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I'm not sure about the dry spell, but a lot of things do better with less fertilizer. For instance my variegated Pandorea jasminoides did not bloom but it is in luxuriant growth with too rich a soil. Maybe next year. And my crinums didn't bloom either, surely because I planted annuals in the same pots and then proceeded to fertilize a bit to get more flowers on the petunias/portulas/what have you. Otherwise the little plants start to look tired. I am learning self control slowly!
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Here is another very beutiful Thunbergia, T. erecta, a shrubby and therefore space-saving species ;D
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The first flower on our Thunbergia grandiflora this year.
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My wife has acquired the climber pictured below. We are pretty sure it is a red-flowered variety of Thunbergia alata, the 'Black-eyed Susan'.
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That is a beautiful colour and should give you pleasure all summer if it flowers as profusely as the orange variety.
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Wonderful colour John - looks like 'Arizona Dark Red'
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Having looked on the Internet I suspected it was something like that, Alisdair, but it's good to get a second opinion, thanks.
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Last year we acquired what we were assured was the orange version of the Thunbergia alata. Today it produced its very first flower and we were not disappointed.