I learnt a new lesson today about Bela Lugosi. Never dead head it in a hurry with your good clothes on. After several clumps my pants and shirt have been dyed.

A picture of an offender.

Gleni said:I learnt a new lesson today about Bela Lugosi. Never dead head it in a hurry with your good clothes on. After several clumps my pants and shirt have been dyed.

@Gleni Now you have a matching outfit

I've had Bela Lugosi for several years and it has done well for me. I don't think I've ever seen a pod on it but I haven't tried to do that (yet). It has been one of my best increasers making a nice clump. It makes a comparable number of flowers with the other plants it is in with so I've been satisfied. It is planted where it gets sun until about 1-2pm, then some shade until 4:30 and sun after that. The color is that lovely rich purple not the red-violet and it holds all day without melting under these conditions. It only gets water that falls from the sky which should be corrected next year. Fortunately we live in north Florida and we do get rain. Our dry months are March-April and October.

Barb

admmad said:I have grown 'Bela Lugosi' for many years. It is hardy with no problem to my zone 4 weather and my growing conditions. It is interesting that there are registered offspring with it as a pod parent as I have pollinated all its flowers for many years and never had a pod mature. I think it is pod-sterile.

I was looking at my data for hybridising for last season in the light of Maurice's comment.
Bela Lugosi is pollen fertile and seedlings from it are doing fine at the moment.
The other way, it formed pods from three crosses but eventually about half dropped off late. Of the seeds planted from pods that seemingly matured, I have not had any germinate at all to date.

I have had this plant for quite a few years. Never been a huge increaser but love the dark color that holds up well so it will stay in my garden. I don't fertilize so I am going to start this year to see if it makes a difference.

I must be fortunate because Bela Lugosi has done well for me. I don't count buds, but it blooms for a long time. I know one year it stayed in bloom 6 weeks, and multi blooms each day. Not a heavy increaser maybe, but I have a large clump of it and have divided it many times over the 10 years or so I have had it. I did set a few ponds on it one year. I did not keep any of its seedlings, they looked very similar to Bela but qualities were not as good.

Bela has been pretty slow in my garden but the color is lovely and always welcome.

I enjoy Bela Lugosi. I had it in the front of a bed and moved it back in the bed because it is tall and highly branched. Good bud count. Not a fast increaser for me. Memory is that is a little darker than my pictures.