**Free plants on Member's Day is one of the benefits offered to the members. The other major benefit is that members not only got the free admission to Flamingo Gardens, but also got the admission privileges to other gardens across North America that joins the American Horticultural Society’s Reciprocal Admissions Program. Miami Fairchild Botanical Garden is one of those gardens.**
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| Botanical Name: Cornutia grandifolia Common name: Troipical Lilac, African Lilac, Jamaican Lilac Family: Verbenaceae |
Tropical Lilac is a fast growing shrub or a small tree for partial sun/shade area. I will train mine to a small tree to take less garden ground space as well as provide some shade to other plants underneath it. Mine is still young, and is about 3 feet tall and still in the original container. Have not decided where to put it in the ground...
It has fragrant velvet leaves. Some says the fragrance is kind of tobacco-like, and others say it is crisp breeze lilac scent (hence the common name?). The scent becomes stronger if you rub the leaves between the fingers, or when you brush against the leaves by walking by it. It is said that its scent is frequently used or imitated in all types merchandise, like chemical air fresheners, candles, scented oils, even the perfume and cologne. Obviously, the fragrance is the major reason that I chose this plant among the 10 choices they gave to the members.
It has tall stalks shooting out multiple lavender blue flowers. The flowers themselves are not fragrant. Before the small flowers open on the stalk, they look like small fuzzy balls.
This is another plant that attracts butterflies, which is a big bonus feature for me!
Do you happen to grow this plant in your garden as well? Anything else that I need to know to better take care of it? It has been in my garden for over a month now. It had a couple of small flower stalks when I brought it home, and now it has about a dozen of those tall stalks in flowering. So, I guess it likes my garden so far.
