A lovely plant for a shady border here. The flower buds do look like little musical notes, and the flowers are graceful and elegant when they open. I find that the flowers hardly last a day if the plant is in too much sun. Filtered shade under my oak trees seems to suit it wonderfully and the flowers last 3 or 4 days. I've also discovered that this plant is sensitive to my high pH well water. Some years I don't irrigate much, but this spring it had a month or so of nothing but well water, and it was really struggling, dropping leaves and looking yellow despite fertilizer and other remedies, until I turned off the sprinkler and began watering it by hand with rain water. This is not a large or robust Clerodendrum, but it is delicate and pretty and it would do nicely in a large container.
I saw some of these at Lowe's today and really wanted one, but hesitated to purchase it because I was afraid I would be throwing away $18 since I know nothing about its growing conditions. I was concerned about your comment that it didn't like well water too much. We have a watering system that is on a well and I was afraid that my plant would suffer the same fate as yours. A container is another option, however, it would still have to be watered with our sprinklers when we are away.
Any day you wake up on the sunny side of the grass is a good day.
"The moving hand writes and having writ moves on. Neither all thy piety nor all thy wit can lure it back to cancel half a line nor all thy tears wash out a word of it." The Rubiyat by Omar Khayyam
Name: Elaine Sarasota, Fl The one constant in life is change
Well Jean, they're not dead, in fact they're in bloom today and are looking a lot better since it's been raining more through August and September. We had hardly any rain in July, and I'm pretty sure that's why they didn't look happy, a lot of irrigation that month.
Have you tested your well water for pH? You can do it yourself with a pool test kit, or buy test strips that are fairly accurate that people use for aquariums or water gardens. It's quite possible that your well water up there is not quite as alkaline as mine. Our water runs a very long way underground in the limestone aquifer before it gets to us here.
I also know that Mj grows the Musical Notes in DeLand so you could ask her how it does for her.
Elaine
"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." –Winston Churchill
Elaine, thanks for the advice about the pH kit. We will pick one up and test our well water. It would be good to know. Also perhaps @mjsponies would have some tips, too.
Any day you wake up on the sunny side of the grass is a good day.
"The moving hand writes and having writ moves on. Neither all thy piety nor all thy wit can lure it back to cancel half a line nor all thy tears wash out a word of it." The Rubiyat by Omar Khayyam
Jean,
I really haven't noticed a big difference between well water and rain water. Mine seem to start blooming sporadically in early June or so. But they really take off starting in late July/early August. I water them really deep when we are not getting rain. I haven't fertilized mine at all. Here's a pic from a couple weeks ago, you can see they are planted next to Xanthosoma monstruosum ( Mickey Mouse Taro) and it likes a moist rich soil also.
Mine have come back reliably each spring.
@mjsponies for the information. I have been thinking about where I want to put one. Our front yard has a couple of spots, but I'm scouting out places in the back yard because that's where all the windows are!
Any day you wake up on the sunny side of the grass is a good day.
"The moving hand writes and having writ moves on. Neither all thy piety nor all thy wit can lure it back to cancel half a line nor all thy tears wash out a word of it." The Rubiyat by Omar Khayyam
Name: Elaine Sarasota, Fl The one constant in life is change
Good idea, Jean. You definitely need to see this plant out the windows, because if the weather's hot the flowers don't last all that long, and you sure don't want to miss them!
It does re-bloom quite often, though. Even with a slow start this summer, we are on at least the third bloom cycle here, and I expect several more.
Elaine
"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." –Winston Churchill
Elaine, you are right. What is the use of having a plant like this unless you can see it. We usually sit at the breakfast table and watch the birds while we have coffee and then later we are either in the office or the family room. Every morning when I come down the hall from the bedroom, I always check my daylily bed to see what is blooming.
Any day you wake up on the sunny side of the grass is a good day.
"The moving hand writes and having writ moves on. Neither all thy piety nor all thy wit can lure it back to cancel half a line nor all thy tears wash out a word of it." The Rubiyat by Omar Khayyam
for the information. I have been thinking about where I want to put one. Our front yard has a couple of spots, but I'm scouting out places in the back yard because that's where all the windows are!
