The easiest woody plant to grow, survives from cuttings, blooms in multiple seasons, highly ornamental, can be made into bonsai
Introduction
Potted green plants are essential decorative items for home life. Keeping some flowers and plants at home has many benefits - it beautifies the home and lifts your mood. "Flower Sound Potted Plant Diary · Issue 1221" introduces you to an extremely easy-to-grow woody flowering plant.
Today's star
Living in Lingnan, adjacent to the "Flower City" Guangzhou, I frequently visit Asia's largest flower wholesale market, the "Lingnan Flower Market." Surrounded by all kinds of curious flowers and plants, I've come to love them. Common plants like pothos, spider plant, and succulents need no introduction. The plant introduced today is called Clerodendrum thomsoniae (bleeding glory-bower), a new type of potted ornamental flowering shrub that has become very popular in recent years. At the local wholesale market, a pot sells for several tens of yuan and often sells out.
Clerodendrum thomsoniae
Clerodendrum thomsoniae is a shrub in the genus Clerodendrum, family Verbenaceae - a true woody flowering plant, not herbaceous. Grown in the ground in South China, it can reach over 3 m tall. The flowers are very strange too - the whole flower resembles the shape of the pagoda candy we ate as children. The upper part is a red corolla, like a bead, slowly emerging from the white petals of the lower part. The process looks like "a dragon spitting out a bead," hence the name. The leaves are emerald green, evergreen all year round, beautiful in both flower and foliage, with very high ornamental value.
Very long flowering period
Clerodendrum thomsoniae is native to western Africa. Like other tropical plants such as hibiscus, it blooms very readily. In its natural state, it blooms in spring, summer, and autumn. If moved indoors in winter with sufficient light and warmth, it will bloom in winter too - you could say it blooms all four seasons. A single flowering period lasts over 20 days. After blooming, it grows branches; when tired of growing, it blooms again, cycling back and forth.
Easy to cultivate
Although it is woody, Clerodendrum thomsoniae can be grown entirely in pots. It has some ability to climb walls and can be grown as a vine. Its vitality is extremely tenacious and it is very heat-tolerant. I once sent seedlings to a flower enthusiast in the north. In the middle of summer, by the time they arrived the leaves had completely wilted. I thought there was no saving them, but after potting and watering thoroughly, they recovered completely the next day - truly admirable.
Can also be made into bonsai
Clerodendrum thomsoniae also grows very fast. Even in the hottest season, it does not go dormant and grows as usual, growing 20 cm taller in a month. It has many branches, tolerates pruning, and is a woody flowering plant - very suitable for pruning into a bonsai tree. A bonsai with flowers covering the branches has very high ornamental value. The pruned branches can continue to be propagated by cuttings with a high survival rate. One mother plant can produce many pots in a year, and the extras can be given away. It is a rare fine potted plant and excellent bonsai material.