Hi Liz. Love those photos. You have such wonderful things still blooming.

You have to fix the sideways photos before you post them here. There might be a feature on your photo to do that?

Mmmmm! Love the Tibouchina and the kitties.

Valleylynn, the weird thing is that the jpeg is right-side up - they flipped when I uploaded them?

Zuzu, the tibouchina are such a wonderful touch of color in the fall - I love them too. All my kitties are rescues. The last one is just over a year - haven't had a kitten in more than 10 years, so her energy is fun & she's a lap kitty. She showed up at my work with a badly healed broken leg & is still a bit feral, so is skittish are around everyone except me.

Those are wonderful kitties. They can be such great garden companions.

Liz - on your second photo, what is the purplish flower? I have a plant with leaves that looks that that, but has not flowered in 2 years, so I am not able to put a positive ID on the plant.

Valleylynn, I love it when the cats are in the garden with me. They love it when I'm gardening near the catmint or catnip! :-)

Soils, I was hoping someone could tell me what it is. (I'm notorius for losing plant labels.) I planted it as a 4" pot just over a couple of years ago & it went crazy. I love it. The leaves are have interesting coloration too. I plan to propagate it & plant more in the yard.

Valleylynn, I love it when the cats are in the garden with me. They especially love it when I'm gardening near the catmint/nepeta or catnip! :-)

Soils, I was hoping someone could tell me what it is. (I'm notorius for losing plant labels.) I planted it as a 4" pot just over a couple of years ago & it went crazy. I love it. The leaves are have interesting coloration too. I plan to propagate it & plant more in the yard.

zuzu said:Mmmmm! Love the Tibouchina.

This is what Zuzu called the purple flowered plant. It is sure beautiful.

I think the question was about the other purple plant, Lynn. Is it a Duranta?

Opps, I was so taken with the wonderful deep purple blooms in the first photo.
Thank you Zuzu for clarifying which photo.

Hmmm, I looked up Duranta, Zuzu, and I'm not sure that is it. I'm going to cut it way back this spring - maybe, I'll find a label then.

It was just a wild guess, Liz, based on what I could see of the blooms and foliage without a closeup.

Thanks for the effort! If necessary, I'll take a cutting to the nursery where I bought it & ask them.

The "other" purple flowering plant looks like Plectranthus "Mona Lavender"...I think.

It does, JD. I was thinking of it as a vine, but I forgot the photo was entered sideways.

That's what I thought right away too Mike, Plectranthus 'Mona Lavender'
Spur Flower (Plectranthus Mona Lavender)

Well then, that settles it ! LOL

Speaking of things blooming (or not blooming) in Dec., does anyone here grow Geum ?
I know this isn't the time for them to bloom, but I have three of them that are all the size of the one in this photo which have never once bloomed. This particular one is (supposedly) "Totally Tangerine".
They're all about three years old, all came from the same nursery, and all planted at the same time, and all they do is produce foliage and NO flowers. The clumps keep getting bigger and bigger and that's it.
I have all 3 in full sun, which seems to suit them fine as the foliage doesn't burn even in the summer heat.
Is there some secret to getting them to bloom ? This is very annoying !

Are you fertilizing them? I don't fertilize mine and they just stopped blooming because of non-stop rain and clouds.
Too much fertilizer will produce lovely green foliage in abundance, but may keep them from blooming. Our maybe the fertilizer should be changed to one that promotes blooms, would have a higher potassium ratio in the three things listed.
NPK

N: nitrogen promotes foliage growth
P: phosphorous promotes root growth
K: potassium promotes blooms

Thanks Mike - that does look like my bush!