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Another favorite bedding plant
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Posted by rhizo_1 7a AL (My Page) on Wed, Aug 17, 11 at 13:20
| I haven't grown Angelonia before, but my husband came home with a flat this spring. It was planted in our blazing hot front bed where plants really have to be chosen with some care. I might add that we have red, clay soil and no irrigation.
Well, this tender perennial (used AS an annual) has been a star! It took a little while for it to get its footing, but once established, took off like gangbusters. It has been totally pest free, never requires dead heading, though I might cut some of them back later on to see what happens.
The big bonus, though, is that it is a terrific butterfly and hummingbird plant! That was a pleasant surprise. My hummers zip from the back yard feeders to the angelonia all day long.
He brought home a purple variety, but they come in other colors, too. Full sun, lots of heat, drought tolerant once established.
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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| Your hubby sounds helpful and definitely has good taste. I used to find these in OH in a dark bluish purple and they always held up well in pots in full sun. Good to know about the hummers! |
RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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| I love this also. Cutting back this week and refertilizing a bit. I have a mix of purples and lavender. Great container plant also, but the ones in the ground are three times as full. We've had terrific heat but I've only watered the in ground ones a couple of times. Containers daily. |
RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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| I'm glad to read this, rhizo. I have tried them numerous times and was not wowed. My bed is very good soil, well drained, but gets alot of water because it's on the same irrigation zone as my grass. Do you think they are a plant that don't like much water or nutrients? Did you fertilize yours? Repeatedly? Or did they have to make do on less than ideal soil and little or no water. This might give me a clue. I do love them and there are precious few "spikes" that do well in our hot summers. |
RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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| Donna, the plants were watered pretty regularly (by hand) when we first put them in the ground. They came in little cell packs and had about three pitiful little spikes. I was NOT impressed, lol. But they soon hardened off as the summer got hotter and hotter and we watered less and less. The hotter it got, the better they did. They are now little shrubs of about 2.5 feet tall by 2 feet across and have a very large number of spikes. We have had pretty regular rainfall here this summer, probably close to once per week or ten days. The plants do not get watered at all outside of rainfall. In my estimation, they would do very well with even less rainfall. Remember, my soil is clay which holds more available water. The bed is slightly amended red clay, but drains well. It is well mulched. I've fertilized once with what I use to do the shrubs in that same bed, a granular triple 18 with miner elements. They were planted late April, I think, and have done nothing but grow and bloom their little heads off. I'm sold on them. |
RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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| Angelonia is a wonderful plant--ideal for containers. It does indeed produce prolifically here till frost. I wouldn't say there is no deadheading, but certainly not the type of deadheading that other plants require. Each bloom spike lasts a long time, but eventually has too many expired florets or tends to fall over. And there are many great colors to choose from. Here is a container with pink and white angelonia. I have also grown them just in the ground, but prefer the look containers. 
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RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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| OOH, I LOVE that container arrangement! I am absolutely going to plant some in containers next spring. |
RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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| Wow. What a lovely container! I am going to give angelonia another go next year. Thanks for the info, rhizo. |
RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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Here are some other shades of angelonia used in container. They get to be quite bushy by the end of the season.
 
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RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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| I agree! This plant did awesome for me this year!! I have grown it in the past, but it really wowed me this year. I think it must like soil on the drier side. I planted some under a birch tree were nothing usually grows because it too dry and it is thriving! |
RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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Mantis.......your containers are so pretty .i love the combo of plants and colors..
ive grown angelonia and it really fills in a blank spot in my flower beds.
at the nursery where i worked,we had a difficult time getting people to buy this plant..its a small plant when we display them......i have to help them realize what size that it will be......once they do try them.....they come back next year to buy again...... carol |
RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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| It's worth mentioning at this point that we've not had any rain for 2 weeks, and the temperatures have been blazing hot. Though we've not watered these plants at all, and have no irrigation, they have not wilted or whimpered. I am so thrilled with this plant! |
RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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| Angelonia really is the sort of no-pamper plant that every gardener can appreciate. And it adds such nice vertical dimensions in planters. It seems to me that angelonia became widely available less than 10 years ago. At least, it isn't that many years ago that I first saw it at garden centers. Maybe I just wasn't that observant. Along with calibrachoa, it has revolutionized container planting. Maybe both of these are too easy, but with the increasingly difficult summers we've been having, I'm glad that they're so dependable. |
RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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| Oh, yeah! Let's have more of 'too easy' (is there such a thing?)! I'm all for plants that scoff at blistering temperatures, do not require a lot of watering when planted in the ground, have no pest problems, and don't need dead-heading. |
RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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- Posted by gumneck 7 (central va.) (My Page) on
Sun, Jan 29, 12 at 9:39
I love this plant. Very little watering, no deadheading and full day sun. Here is how it looked along a walkway with some self-seeded vinca. I probably could have gotten by with fewer plants and it may have looked less bushy if I had cut it back. Vinca self-seeds like crazy so I end up thinning it out, putting plants elsewhere in the garden and giving some away.
Angelonia May planting
Angelonia July
Angelonia Oct.
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RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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| Based on this thread, I ordered Angelonia seeds this year. They are here and it won't be long till it's time to give them a go. I bought the seeds from Swallowtail and they came in tiny glass vials inside the seed packets. That's a first! I am going to plant the purple ones with violet vincas and cuban gold durantas in groups along my front border. Those pictures are gorgeous, y'all. Can't wait for summer! |
RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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| Very pretty! I have ordered all the seeds my conscience and budget will allow for this year but I will keep an eye open for them in plant form at the local nursery. |
RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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| I've seen Angelonia seed offered, but the variety is so limited and the price high compared to what's available in packs, that it's preferable to me to pick up what I need at the nursery. I grew a compact Angelonia hybrid as a mid-season replacement and it flowered heavily well into October (foreground left in this photo): 
I've always found Angelonia to be amazingly heat-tolerant (even near the Gulf Coast) and it seems to do equally well in more temperate summer locations.
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RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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| I don't think anyone who uses this plant will be disappointed. My only reminder, hinted at by some of us, is to give Angelonia PLENTY of room, even if it's small when you purchase it. As I mentioned in my original post, it takes a few weeks to establish a good root system, but when it does WATCH OUT! Donna, I will be very interested in hearing how yours do from seed. You're my little guinea pig....if they do well for you, I may go that route next year. |
RE: Another favorite bedding plant
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| No problem. Will do, rhizo. I will be interested myself! :) By the way, my parsnips are doing nicely under row covers this winter, though they were not very big when I checked them a couple weeks ago. Will give you an update as time goes by. |
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