Wednesday

Tropical Dogwood Virgin Tree

Who would have thought, a Tropical Dogwood. Look these massive beautiful blooms.
Mussaenda is a rounded evergreen tropical shrub or sub-shrub that will grow to 10’ tall in tropical areas, but more likely will reach 2-5’ tall in containers. Clusters of small, tubular flowers with five large spreading lobes bloom in summer, however it is the large and colorful, ovate, leaf-like sepals (to 3” long) that provide the real ornamental display. Some individual flowers in each cluster will develop a single enlarged sepal. Elliptic to ovate, bright green leaves (to 6” long). Hybrids sold in commerce typically feature flowers in red and/or yellow with showy sepals of white, bright red or pink.

Winter hardy to USDA Zones 9-11. Can be grown in containers that must be overwintered indoors. Use a well-draining potting mix and keep soils consistently moist. Grow in full sun to part shade. Best color in full sun, but plants also appreciate some mid-day filtered sun in hot climates. Bring containers indoors in fall when night temperatures start dropping into the 50s. Overwinter in a greenhouse or a warm sun room. Cuttings may be taken in late summer for overwintering.
This plant is propagated by rooting soft or hardwood cuttings.
Germination of Mussaenda seeds: The soaked seeds are to be planted in plastic cups containing an equal mixture of sand and coir dust.  After spraying water, the cups should be sealed with polypropylene plastic and stored for a month at 57 degrees F for stratification or cold treatment.  At their four-leaf stage, seedlings are ready for transplanting.
If anyone you know sells it or shares it or swaps it, let me know! 

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3 comments:

flower delivery in the philippines said...

Interesting flowers! I like it and I want to have like that in my garden. Anyway, thanks for sharing this information. Keep posting.


-yumi-

flower Philippines said...

Lovely flowers and so interesting it was good to have a virgin tree on your garden I love the idea. Keep posting!

toni

Garden Medusa said...

Thanks much!