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I received a small root division of this plant from a wonderful lady some years back. She called it a Monkey Face... After it went dormant last year, my hubby ... being the nice fellow he is... decided to help me clean out my old pots. When I saw that he had dumped this one... I about fell out... because I cannot get any more since that wonderful lady has since passed on. He told me where he dumped it in back of the storage shed in the woods.. I braved ticks and snakes to find just a few small pieces of the root... I found 3 tiny chunks... and put them in a nice fresh pot of soil... and this spring, after watering with rainwater, they began to grow. I labeled the pot... DO NOT TOUCH !! lol and now this is the result of my rescue. It is growing like the dickens and blooming as if in total gratitude for my rescue efforts...
Now does anyone know what it is????
I have never seen any anywhere before..
Thanks,
Carolyn
The shape of the flowers doesn't look right to me for Mimulus. I think it's a Ruellia of some sort. There's Ruellia makoyana which has the common name monkey plant, although your leaves don't look like they quite match, plus it wouldn't be anywhere near hardy in your zone. [HYPERLINK@davesgarden.com] But it could easily be a case of the common name being applied to a different member of the genus. The leaves and the hardiness would be more consistent with Ruellia caroliniensis [HYPERLINK@davesgarden.com] but there may be other possibilities as well.
Looks like an Achimenes to me. Several named cultivars plus ones just labeled by color exist in the trade. Here's a link to A. 'Big Purple' for comparison...
It is the Achimenes to be sure... That is exactly the same.. and I must bring it inside for the winter as it will not winter over... I tried it once with a small root division and even mulched it with wheat straw, but it never came back.
I simply let it go dormant and place it down in our dark store room in the basement and then about March begin to water it... and by April, it starts to show little teeny leaves and grows to what you seen in the photo...
You can dig up the small tubers and save thru the winter for new plants in the spring ..Our family has passed this plant thru several generations without knowing what it really was.Last year with help from the nice people at Oklahoma State University we were able to put a name to it> Achimenes ,I did have some that survived the mild winter outside this past year but sure don't reccomend that ..I save the small tubers in a paper sack and plant rather late (after May 1)
