Viewing comments posted by krobra

Rockin' Deep Purple does produced the occasional seed/seedling. Seedlings I have found so far have had dark purple, pink or light blue almost white blooms. While all these colors are in the Rockin' series, they are not exact matches to the original blooms or plants. But for the price of one Deep Purple and a couple years, I have two new colors.

I find this mildly aggressive spreading plant a welcome addition to the few beds it has decided to make a home in so far, mainly because it is a host plant for Fritillary butterflies. Its pretty purple early blooms and cute heart-shaped leaves are an added bonus to my often otherwise drab and fairly barren early spring beds.

Spider Flower (Tarenaya hassleriana) is a butterfly host plant for the Great Southern White, Cabbage White, and Checkered White butterflies.

Just a few thoughts and observations of my year of owning ruttya fruticosas.

When I got my plants, they were in small pots. I repotted them and they spent all summer growing. They did bloom after it was time to bring them in, which was when temps started to get to a chilly 39-40F at night for me. I noticed it damaged one of the larger buds, although I think the leaves and roots can take a little bit colder temps.

If you want to repot them, I recommend waiting until after they bloom. They tend to go through a cycle: grow, then leaves and stems mature/harden, bud, then bloom, maybe grow a seed pod or two and start growing again. A few leaves yellow during the maturing. I usually pinch them off. I also hand pollinated most of my blooms with fallen blooms. Not sure if they will seed on their own or not. The small green bean-like seed pods do explode, ejecting the seed soon after turning from green to brown. After the first one exploded, I picked the rest of mine when they started turning brown and let them finish maturing in a sealed tupperware container.

If you want to take cuttings to overwinter or just keep it at a small manageable size, all of mine came from new growth and most were grown in an aquarium with grow light, but I believe they are quite easy to root in moist soil and good lighting, whether it is a sunny room or fluorescent lighting.

They do tend to drip small drops of nectar. I had mine overwintering on plastic in the basement. I definitely recommend a smooth or cleanable surface underneath any pot inside or pinching back any stems overhanging the rim of the pot.

Just a small word of warning: If you are trying to save any seed pods, harvest them as soon as the pods turn brown. The pods will explode and eject the seeds soon after they do.

I have tried for 7 or 8 years to get this plant to bloom. It always produces stalks and plenty of offshoots, and last year had a flower stem with buds, but it got chewed up by something and fell off before it ever matured. This year I finally have actual flower blooms on 2 stalks and a whole lot of extra offshoots, more then usual. Only thing I can say I really did differently this year was to water it every other day heavily at the soil. The hummingbirds seem to enjoy the flowers, as do I. It was a long time from bulb planting to actual flowering for me, but it is a very pretty flower and a hardy plant that has come back year after year in my zone. I look forward to the day when I have an army of them blooming.

This is a must have every year. It is easy to grow and I love the scent. Bees and hummingbirds love the flowers in summer, goldfinches love eating the seeds out of the buds in fall, and adding dried deadheaded buds to my smoker's firebox adds a nice flavor to my smoked meats.