PlantFiles: Plumbago, Cape Leadwort
Plumbago auriculata

A few years ago I started growing this plant in a pot and the poor thing got very little care, yet performed beautifully. The other day I decided to give it a haircut and the roots had grown out of the pot and into the ground. It was a bear to lift! I also found quite a few suckers nearby, they seemed easy to pick. In any case this is the kind of plant that needs lots of room or needs frequent haircuts so give some thought to location prior to planting.

I am getting ready to transplant inground hoping it doesn't turn into a man-eater. While potted it was in full sun, its new location inground will be part sun.

I absolutely love this plant. For years I have had trouble finding plants to survive in an area of my garden that sometimes gets sun, sometimes doesn't. It is under trees and close to well established, decades old gardenias--therefore, it is also a dry area. These plants adapt to difficult conditions, while looking bright and cheerful. I liked plumbagos in my neighbors gardens and am very pleased with them now in mine.

As already mentioned, in frost free areas, it can get to well above 15 feet tall and wide. I've seen them this big in the San Francisco bay area (San Jose, Oakland, Hayward...) Here in the Central Valley, our ocassional light frosts keep it in check, which is a good thing since i rather have them sprawling all over the floor than becoming a huge barrier between my driveway and the neighbor's driveway. Here in zone 9b, plumbago out in the open get SOME leaf damage every year, but in a protected location (near a house, shed, wall...) they put out new growth and bloom year round.

I have a vacation home in Florida which I visit 3 times a year so finding plants that can cope on their own for fairly long periods is a must. My plumbagos have managed in my absence extremely well and greet me most times of the year with their beautiful blue flowers. I have a potted one at home in the south of England but I have to move this to a frost free area in the Winter and prune it hard back. It grows back very well in the Spring and rewards me with beautiful flowers in late Summer. So I have found thus plant to be a great all rounder.

This is great information...I like it...I have a plumbago that I just brought in. Had it in a planter on my deck, its gorgeous blue. I am in Ma. so it will not survive a winter outdoors. Just wondering if I should cut it back or just let it grow? In a south facing window , so it gets alot of sun...

Mid-summer I purchased and planted several white plumbagos in my garden. I live in zone 8 where they bloom until the first frost which is not for some time. When the position of the sun changed in the fall, the plumbagos in the area of my garden that now get very little morning sun are not blooming very well and some not at all. The plumbagos on the side of the house with tons of afternoon sun are still blooming.

I am not sure if the blooming problem is too much water or not enough sun. I always thought plumbagos bloomed in partial shade but I have read recently that white plumbagos do not bloom as well in partial shade? After reading everything here, I am also wondering if the sunny planted plumbagos may be blooming better because the water evaporates quickly there. I can try to dry out my shady spot plumbagos and see if they will bloom but that is hard to do because I have other newly planted plants in that area that want water. Any advice?

Plumbago, Cape Leadwort (Plumbago auriculata) is the larval host for several types of butterflies including the Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus), Marine Blue (Leptotes marina), Cassius Blue (Leptotes cassius) and Plumbago or Zebra Blue (Leptotes plinius pseudocassius- found in Austarlia). It is a nectar source for many butterflies including the Pipevine Swallwtail ((Battus philenor), Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes), Eastern Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes asterias), Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly ((Phoebis sennae) and Southern Dogface (Zerene cesonia). Want to attract butterflies to your garden? Then, plant a plumbago.

I can heartily endorse all positives. Have grown in pots here for about 4 years, bringing in in mid Fall, wintering both in a South window, w/ weekly complete watering, and under lights. This has seemed very easy to do, or I've been lucky. Perhaps my best association is having given one to my elderly parents, who love plants but weren't aware of Plumbago, who are now delighted by it each summer. I winter it for them. So, very satisfying.

I absolutely LOVE plumbago. It does thrive on neglect, and it was growing on the north side of my house in zone 8, with freezes down into the 20's. It is necessary to keep it pruned back, as it can take over a flowerbed in no time at all in warm weather, but pruning is so easy to do. Recently moved to zone 9, and planted two whites and one blue in a bed, with hibiscus behing them, and seems that the hibiscus food I am using is just the thing for them, as they are blooming beautifully for the second year.

I live in zone 6 (Enid, OK) and am growing this plant in a container. In the spring I'm going to propagate it and plant an offspring in the ground to see if it lasts through our winter.

This plant is excellent for planting in an area to prevent erosion, like on a bank. It is one of the first plants to return each year, and takes a lot of neglect. Blooms constantly.

I planted two beautiful plumbagos outside last late summer, but there is no evidence that they made it yet. Still two sticks in the ground! I'll give them a little more time after reading all the other remarks.

I live in a zone 7 area in NC. I found one of these on clearance at a pricey nursery and fell in love with the color.
I added it to a huge pot at my front door and it flowered profusely until frost bit it. Lowe's had a bunch of them this spring so I'll just treat it as an annual and enjoy it while it lasts.

I live in a " micro-tropical zone" in Santa Cruz, California. I have 5 plumgagos - all bought as 4" plants at a local nursery. Two of them are in the ground; the rest in pots. They were all planted at the same time. Some seem to bloom during late Spring/Fall,and others are just getting established. They need to be fertilized and kept under control, however. One, I grow as a tree; another as a small bush and some I just let go. I love the look of them mixed with hydrangeas of various colors. This is a great shrub, if you keep an eye on it.

As others here have mentioned, I am happy to have a plant that flowers with a true, light cerulean blue. It dies back to the ground with severe winter freezes but returns in the Spring here in NE Fla. It survived mostly intact this winter with a few nights that were as low as 28 F. I have it at the back of my blue/white garden and want it to grow to the 4' heighth of the hedges. I may see it do that this year since it remains about 2' high despite the winter.

I was also able to find the white flowering variety of Plumbago last season and it, too, is doing well. It is flowering now (5/1/2005) prior to the flowering of the blue variety.

Plumbago is one of my favorites because of the color. It also grows well under my Coral plant (tree) with limited light. I planted it in the semi shade so the butterflies would have a place to eat out of the sun, which in summer is brutal here.
This past weekend (3/12/05) I saw a rare Miami Blue butterfly (not) it turned out to be a Cassia Blue laying eggs on my Plumbago. I now have a colony of the Cassia Blue's.
Both the Cassia Blues and the Miami Blue look very similar. Just a small orange dot distinguishes the species.
Art

To Martha-Johnson -- you are probably overwatering! Plumbago in my experience seems to thrive on neglect. I use it a lot in low maintenance gardens where water is scarce. Stop watering for a while, only humidifying the soil when it is dry to the touch and see what happens. Of course, going into winter, you'll probably only see the results next spring.

So I should move this plant out of my backyard where my dog could possibly ingest part of it??

I have planted my plumbago in a flowerbed that gets watered every morning on the west side of my house, which means morning shade and afternoon and evening sun. My blue darling is not doing well--alive but no growth or flowers. I've had it for two months and am hoping the plant is only resting.

Near Sacramento, this plant thrives from early spring (mid-70s) through the triple-digit weather all the way into early winter. Although it is a semi-evergreen, in the heart of our winter (days in the 50s, nights in the 30s and 40s), it gets really scruffy looking. At this point I trim it to the ground and wait for spring (I have a lot of these plants, so this is quite a job). As a climber, you still need space in order to enjoy the blooms. I planted 2 on a trellis next to my driveway, but because the plant blooms at the end of a really long shoot, I have to cut the blooms back in order to get my car out of the driveway without running into them. It's a beautiful, easy-to-care-for plant, if you have the space.

I have a small greenhouse to over winter tropicals because here in Western Ky. it gets too cold for them to stay out. I have a coi pond and I love decorating my garden around it with tropicals. I keep plumbago in a couple of plantars and move it in and out each year. I just love them and they can withstand the heat and dryness that can come some times with outside summer potting. They are in full sun. Plumbago is a wonderful way to bring the tropical feeling to my home garden.

These blue flowers are popular, maybe the most popular blue flowers over here. It likes fertile soil, where it blooms all the time, and is usually planted along with something else. I have seen beds with Plumbago and assorted coloured Lantanas, adorable.

I love any plant that goes on in spite of me when its just too hot to go out and water. Plumbago is one of my favorites. In my experience, watering encourages growth -- but not blooms. The hotter it gets and the less I water this plant -- the more it blooms. It's perfect in those corners of my garden where the hose just barely reaches.

I have grown this plant in containers in my garden for years. It is an outstanding plant for container gardening, and produces beautiful sky-blue blooms until frost kills it. I have overwintered it in the garage several times, and it comes back in fine form in spring. It requires a thorough watering about once a week and responds well to Bloom Buster or other bloom inducing liquid fertilizers.

In frost-free areas this plant will easily exceed 15' in height and width. Gardeners in these zones should keep this in mind when siting P. auriculata.

Most freeway offramp burms in North to Central Florida have plumbagos as the main landscape plant. The blue color it creates in mass planting is spectacular and the plant appears to thrive on neglect.

I have used Plumbago for years and I enjoy it. If it is poisonous, I'm not sensitive to its secretions and I know no one who is. That's often an indicator of actual toxicity, though it is not definitive.

If you do not want to prune, don't grow this plant, or put it where it can roam free. As with any unruely grower, location, location, location. :-)

I've loved this true BLUE flower since I first saw it in Charlston, South Carolina! I once managed to overwinter it by mulching the crown of the plant with pine bark mulch during a mild winter here in Atlanta, Georgia (USDA Zone 7a), but it took a while to green up the following season.

I had such wonderful results this summer that I am potting up a few treasured specimens and housing them in an unheated outbuilding with south facing windows. I will also experiment with wraping whole plants with leaf mulch and a coat made of home insulation. I just don't want to have to start all over from scratch in 2004. How lucky those of you in zones 8-10 are to have this lovely plant as a perennial!

Could not get it to thrive in my amended clay soil, but I bought it again in a lovely dark shade of blue, putting it in a planter with just planting mix. It overwintered well, and is growing fast. Looks great trained up a bamboo tepee. The only complaint is that the lovely shade of dark blue changed to the regularly found lighter blue this season.

I love it! It's easy to grow and here in South Texas, you see it everywhere in all its shades of blue, and in white once in a while. It's used as a short hedge-like plant along the side of the house, as a cascading plant in window boxes, and any place you want a spot of color. It's true, the flowers do stick to you, but to a lot of people, it's worth it--after all, you don't have to trim it very often. Just give it plenty of room to cascade like a fountain. Then every 2-3 years, you'll need to cut it way back and let it grow up again.

Love this plant for the vibrant shade of blue. I got one from my mother-in-law and kept in the house ove the winter so that it wouldn't die from the frost. It looked a little weak, but I kept my fingers crossed.

I planted it outside in the spring where it would get morning sun and it is doing so well! I'm a little worried about this winter, but I am hoping to take a piece and pot it so I will have more next year.

Though this is an attractive plant and needs virtually no water to thrive here in southern California, it is also a weed, and nearly impossible to exterminate. It can be cut to the ground and promptly returns to life... it can be dug out of the ground, and promptly returns to life if some roots left behind.

On top of that, pruning it is an experience, as it has hundreds of annoyingly sticky flowers that adhere to any and all body parts/clothing. 10 minutes of pruning = 30 minutes of pulling plant parts off oneself.

I'd like to use this plant in a rock garden in Zone 9.

Very easy to grow plant. Takes little or no maintenance. Bloomed all summer for me, with a little deadheading it just kept going. Love the bright spot of blue.

Here in the tropical south Plumbago blooms from very early spring through late fall. It bears spikes of flowers in all shades of blue as well as a lovely, pure white cultivar. The fact that it attracts butterflies is just one more positive for this plant. Once established this plant is drought tolerant and needs very little care. Buy plants in bloom to get the shade of blue you desire. Plumbago can be propagated from suckers, root cuttings or semi-hardwood cuttings in spring.

Plumbago is an irregular shrub that can be grown as a hedge or trained up a trellis. Flowers are small and grow in clusters, and range from a very light blue to darker shades. Withstands neglect after it is established.