Tibouchinas

If you love the colour of purple in the garden, then you'll just adore the magnificent flowering Tibouchina. Tibouchina's are magnificent shrubs that are ideally suited to our tropical to sub-tropical climate.There are many wonderful varieties available that vary in size & colour from 1m shrubs to 6m trees, with deep purples & even pink flowers. There are some varieties that flower just about all year round, but their main flowering times are autumn and spring - & they look fantastic! SOIL & CLIMATE Now there are a few tricks for abundant flowering. Firstly, they need a good sunny position and like to be planted into a rich acidic soil.They don't like alkaline soils (those soils with a pH of 7 or above), but flourish in slightly acidic soils with a pH of around 5.5 to 6.5. If your soil is alkaline, the pH can be lowered by using Sulphur Powder. Follow the directions on the container to suit your soil type. Tibouchinas like a warm to hot climate and don't mind some cool weather in winter, but they will be affected by frosts, so may not be suitable for those gardens that are frosted.
	FERTILISING & MULCH Fertilise Tibouchinas every autumn & spring with Searles 5 in 1® Organic Plant Food and also add a couple of handfuls of Searles® Azalea & Camellia Plant Food. Then cover the soil with a thick layer of a high quality mulch, such as Searles® Mulch Plus, and then give them a good deep watering.
WATERING When first planting a Tibouchina, they will need regular watering until established, to ensure a good start to their life. Once they have established a good deep root system (after the first year), a good deep watering once a week should suffice. If you live in an area that receives a moderate to high rainfall, you may very well find that these beautiful shrubs will hardly need any additional watering at all. PRUNING The real trick to promote profuse flowering for the next season is to prune them back hard immediately once the last flowers fall. This will encourage more new growth, helps to keep the foliage compact and results in more flowers. Growing Tibouchinas is good fun and they require very little maintenance. They are an easy to grow plant, and when in flower, they are just stunning, decorating the garden with a lovely and profuse display of deep purple blooms. Happy Gardening with Searles from the Searle family. © Copyright 2002 JC & AT Searle Pty Ltd You may make a copy of this Fact Sheet for your personal, non-commercial use only. Please do not make any other use of this Fact Sheet without first obtaining our permission.