I grew several of these semi-tropical shrubs from seed about ten years ago. I kept them in large pots, but they never bloomed. As a last resort, I planted the last survivor out in the open border along the driveway. The plant surprised me with its hardiness. It has died back to the roots every year, then resprouted and grown to five or six feet by late summer. But still, no flowers!
We had some significantly cold weather this past winter, but not enough to cut the Iochroma down. It stayed alive and fortunately I didn’t cut it back like I usually do! It leafed out all the way to the top and sprouted buds and now flowers!
The flowers are a bit bigger than I imagined and a lovely shade blue-lavender.
My 2020 plans for this plant will be to get a few cuttings in July to see if I can get a few for sales and maybe one for the memory garden. I’ll also make sure to get an organic fertilizer spike under it to help feed its additional growth this year.
