Tibouchina granulosa - Purple Glory Tree

I need to buy a Tibouchina....

There's so many species/varieties of Tibouchina...they're all great shrubs/trees! :>)

Which will grow well in my zone 10 climate (lol,lol, sorry).

You'll have to experiment. Tibouchina granulosa is one of the more tenderer species. I think it's native to northern Brazil.

I have two now Alex!!

Are the flowers small or the leaves large on this one?

Meanie:

The flower are medium size in large clusters. The flowers are purple with a hint of mauve (which this photo doesn't show). The leaves are relatively large and usually very full (which you can't tell from these plants, because they were for sale in big pots).

Meanie has TWO!!!! I need to get into gear here.....

Why is it in a country full of sun and heat we are soooo limited with plants. Don't answer that!

Yes, it does amaze me. I guess maybe plants are even more strictly regulated than here, which is very hard to believe...because we have super strict regulations for incoming plants (because of our multi-billion dollar agriculture economy, which is one of the largest in the world).

Believe me it's not that plants are more strictly regulated here!!!

That doesn't sound very good! I'm guessing it's political...like almost everything else. Right? :>/

If I get my new space I'll seek one of these out!

Meanie:

I'm just guessing, but I don't think this is going to be an easy plant to find in the UK.

Here's some incredible photos of this tree in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I've never seen them this large here in San Diego.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mauroguanandi/2245043346/in/photostream/lightbox/

The Tibouchina mutabilis trees in the photos are beautiful, also. I saw T. mutabilis for sale at my favorite nursery here in San Diego...I'd love to get one!

Oh Delonix, you hit it on the nose. That and lack of interest, creativity, imagination, motivation and the list goes on. :o(

Alexandramou:

It appears you need to start a garden club to get the interest, creativity and motivation going there. It's such a shame to have a wonderful climate and have such limited plant species growing (it would drive me nuts!!!).

We're extremely lucky here in California...there's a huge interest in horticulture. There's the California Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG), Palm Society, Plumeria Society, Orchid Societies, Cacti & Succulent Societies, Fern Society, California Native Society, Rhododendron & Vireya Society and the lists go on and on.

I originally joined the International Palm Society (IPS) back in 1984...unfortunately, I'm not too active in it, anymore. I used to belong to the Plumeria Society of San Diego...however, it's been about 7 years since I was active in it.

Impossible so far!

Meanie:

There's a lot of Tibouchina species growing here (and available for sale) however, T. granulosa is not to readily available here, either.

Good luck with the hunt! :>)

Well, I'd love to grow tulips, unfortunatelly they don't like warm weather....

We have lots of Tibouchinas growing a long the streets as decorative and shadow trees, in our climate (south Brazil) the temperatures can drop bellow zero.

I've seen it growing wild here in south, so I beleive it might be native from southeast or along the coast.

Here is a nice view of tibouchinas growing in São Paulo
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficheiro:Quaresmeirasenfeirtando.jpg

You can see the rose and the purple ones :o)

Aleyna:

I know what you mean Aleyna: Tulips do not grow well at all here. I've tried...they usually look deformed! lol! :>)

That photo of all those Tibouchina granulosa are absolutely GORGEOUS!!! I've seen large Tibouchina trees here...however, not as tall as the ones in that photo.

Maybe one day we'll have Tibouchina granulosa as tall as the ones in that park in São Paulo, Brazil...in Balboa Park.

That is pretty stunning Aleyna!

Meanie, I agree 100% with you! The trees almost look like Jacarandas, when in full bloom.

Delonix and Meanie,
I'm glad you liked the link, :)

I sure liked it! :>)

I bought one from a local nursery here on St. Simons island ga, It looked great Friday then Saturday evening I notices one of the branches was dying. My tree has two main branches coming up from the trunk, they fork off at the trunk and grow up wards. Now one is dying, it's not broke or damaged anywhere, any clues what happen?

I have no idea. However, with this being said, I know they grow best in the ground in a warm subtropical or tropical climate. I had a couple of these plants many years ago and in the pots they died. I think it's possibly due to the horrible, hard water here in Southern California. The nicest ones I've ever seen here where in the ground with deep watering once or twice a month. I hope this helps.

Also, this plant is not reliably hardy below 32ºF (0ºC).