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Ruellia What a beautiful, long blooming perennial. From spring until the fall. Each flower sometimes only blooming for one day. The leaves are lance shaped, from four to six inches.
The flowers are five lobed and tubular: purple with darker veins. It also comes in pink. Grow in sunny to partial shade. Zone 7 - 9. Keep in well-drained soil. One can propagate in the fall or spring by seeds or division. They look nice in border, cottage gardens, and pots. The wild species (Ruellia tweediana) can be invasive.
Q: I live in central Alabama, zone 8. I have a Mexican petunia in my yard that is 2-3 feet tall. It gets plenty of blooms, but the blooms fall off within a matter of hours or a day. Is this normal? If not, what do I need to do? A: Absolutely normal. I live in northern Florida on the border of zones 8/9 and have a bed of Mexican petunia (about 2-3 ft wide and 30 ft long?) which has been there for 5 years or so. That is exactly what the plants do. They bloom and then within hours or a day the bloom falls off. Ours start blooming in late June, I think and then keep blooming all summer into the fall. Q: Thanks for the Mexican Petunia site. I have
just seen the dwarfs at Home Depot for the first time and was wondering
how they spread. Do they spread along the ground to form a ground cover? I
have had the regular ones for years, but am new to the dwarf that claims
to get 6"-8" high. A: (I just went outside to look) We've had a small clump of dwarf Mexican Petunia for 5-6 years and I'm not sure they spread at all!! They are about three feet of plants in a line along a bed. They might have started out as a one foot wide clump (memory is faulty) but if that is so, then they have not spread much. Q: I just read some of your questions an answers - you mentioned a short version of the ruellia plant. I have just that but do not know the variety true name and a source for it. I own a nursery/garden center and would certainly like to start selling this terrific little plant if I could come up with some liners. A: I do not know the exact variety name. However, I have grown them for about 4 years now.... and they return very year for me . Full sun is a must. The ones I left is the shade do not flower. This year, because of all the rain and cloudy days and no intense hot heat, some of my natives are taking their time to bloom.. It should be no trouble propagating them, that is for sure. It is such a wonderful drought resistant plant....and require no improvements in the soil. Q: I have ruellias planted in a u-shape around my patio. They are about three feet tall by 3 feet in width. Lately I have found some bare areas near the top and when I looked closely I found that there was a lot of horizontal growth that was choking off the vertical growth. I started cutting out this horizontal growth but there is an awful lot of it and I am afraid I will hurt the plant by doing so. A: I've cut back my Mexican Petunias all sorts of ways, just to
experiment. If they are too thick, I try to just pull them up to thin them out
(it's difficult to pull the bigger ones up, but it can be done.) Q: My father has sent me a cutting from his Ruellia plant from west central Florida. I want to know if I can grow it in southeastern Michigan. (Zone 4) Any information you can provide me about the Ruellia will be greatly appreciated, as until today we didn't even know what kind of plant he had. We found the plant pictured in a Home Depot sales paper-with the name "Ruellia". My dad's plant is about 3 feet tall, with delicate light purple flowers that bloom every morning, and then fall off every evening. He's been giving cuttings to all of his neighbors and they are having great success with growing nice sized plants from them. Can I grow it in a pot, put it outdoors during
the summer, and bring it indoors during the winter? Any info you have on
these lovely plants will sure be helpful. A: There are about 150 species of Ruellia. The one we like, the Mexican
Petunia, is not even listed in our plant books. Q: Hi, I came across your site on the Mexican petunia....... help........ I am overrun by this and cannot get rid of it. A friend gave me one tiny little stalk years ago, we planted it, and now is huge, it has killed off all my other flowers in the back yard, and it has now started running roots under the ground and outside the flower beds and has now ruined the yard itself, and the landlords are upset and want it gone. I don't know how to get rid of it. I tried last year and its getting worse. We mow it down, but the roots are still in the lawn. I have to get rid of it before the landlord has a hissy fit. HELP !!!!!!!! What to do to get rid of it. It has spread everywhere: under the ground, up to the patio, into the lawn.... A: Doncha just luv it when somebody writes in and asks how to kill one of our favorite plants? Since we have so much of it, we can appreciate the question. Your description of it's growth is right on. When it spreads from one bed to another, or to the lawn, we do have to deal with it. I just wiped it out of one of our beds by pulling it. Yes, it is hard and the roots of the older plant go deep. I do not think you have to get the entire root out, but you do have to discourage it. Then you have to conscientiously follow up and pull it up again in a few weeks because it will come back or you will miss some. I was successful with this method of wiping it out of an entire bed. I keep it out of the lawn by conscientiously pulling it. Constantly. We have so much of it that I have tried, as an experiment once, cutting a section down to the ground. It came up even better. I did look up in the "Southern Living Garden Problem Solver" because they are usually good about telling you what chemical to use to kill something. Their only listing is under "great plants to plant on a slope." Even THEY love the Mexican petunia. While killing some nearby weeds with a weed killer (I forget what I was using) I did spray some on the Mexican petunias, to see what would happen. It did not kill it. Of course, I was not trying very hard, just experimenting. Another reader writes: For the writer inquiring about Mexican petunias surviving Midwest winters, we live in St. Louis, MO, and have had a Mexican Petunia for over 4 years now. It has lived through our winters (zone 5) and returned each spring with no problem. It's gorgeous with no care whatsover. Q: I have Mexican petunias in one of front flowerbeds (Sugar Land, Texas zone 9). How do I go about pruning them so they get bushier and when should I do this? A: Mexican petunias will get thicker and bushier by merely taking cuttings. When I want a vase of color I snip and cut through the summer. Q: I live in St. Louis, Missouri, and on a recent trip to Florida, I discovered Mexican Petunias. I bought two plants at Wal-Mart and they are doing great. I would like to know if they would survive the winter. A: Having a Mexican petunia survive through the winter depends on where you live. This is a plant that does well in lots of warm-hot weather. I have not seen them grow through the winter under the zone of 7 and even that is with a good micro climate to protect it. Q: We bought four Mexican petunias plants and planted in march. They are growing like crazy. When and how is a good time to trim cut back? A: You can cut back these plants anytime, I usually wait until they bloom at least once for me..... The winter may take them to the ground in an unusual severe winter but they do return, and they self seed readily.
A: You have purchased two different varieties of Mexican Petunias. One is obviously tall and will tolerate pruning almost at anytime. It should root in water. Mine do, and quickly. Making sure there is plenty of stem and nodes to root. The shorter version is bushier and used more for the front of the border in flowerbeds. I too have three of them and they seem to take longer to perform but have cute stout tight blooms. Sometimes plant 'droop' because of the high temps, not really needing any water at all. This is called not having a turgid condition. I would move your containers in shade to do all the rooting if you have not done so already. In addition, shock in transplanting sometimes takes over and it takes time for plants to respond to new environments. But eventually they do respond. Hope this is the trouble. My other suggestion is to look carefully if there are no signs of insects or diseases. If so just wash with soap and water carefully, maybe a couple of times. Also do not fertilize until things are looking ship shape again. Plants taking in fertilizer when 'sick' do more harm than good. Q: I have just discovered Mexican petunias and love the way they look in my garden. I planted several of them about a week ago and notice that some of the leaves at the bottom of the plant are starting to turn yellow. We have had an over abundance of rain since they were planted.....could this be the reason for the yellow leaves? A: Yes, lots of rain will cause a plant to turn yellow. You can 'green' it up by applying ironite. It now comes with added nutrient value. A condition easily fixed. Q: I recently fell in love with Mexican Petunias. This upcoming spring will be the 3rd year of my love affair. Perhaps I had not noticed in the past, but the entire plant bed appears to be dead, roots and everything. I live in Columbia, SC and we have had some unseasonably cold weather (20's-30's). Should my Mexican Petunias be OK and grow back as beautiful as they were last year? I took some cuttings in the fall and still have them in a vase in water. Should I wait until spring to plant the cuttings outside or would it be better to put them in a pot with soil and then transplant them in the spring? A: I am sure you will have some Mexican Petunias coming up from seed, since they disperse readily and germinate readily and are so very self-seeding. However, taking some cuttings was also a wise thing to do. You can transplant the Mexican Petunias if there is sufficient root development and then grow them more 'til transplanting in the late spring. These plants like lots of hot sun to perform and you would not want any late cold days of spring to hurt the plant. When your plants are 3 ft tall or more you can also propagate by taking more cuttings through the season....that will make your plant bushier /fuller and more to play with. Q: I'm new to gardening and need all of the help I can get. My mother in law has some Mexican petunias in her side lawn and they have taken over! My husband and I will soon be renting that house from them and we told her we would see if we could find a way to keep them in check. We would like to keep them because they are so beautiful, but I think it is getting a little out of hand. When I found your website, I was hoping that I could find a companion plant that may help keep them from being so invasive. Any ideas or tricks of the trade you don't mind passing along? We are in Dallas, Texas, and I believe that is either zone 8 or 9. A: Mexican Ruella certainly can take over but the easiest way to control new plant growth from seed is to make bouquets ever so often, and just trim back. The plant will get bushier and bigger eventually but all the new little ones will be prevented by the elimination of the seeds. It is also very easy to just pull up the new seedlings. The roots are tap roots and deep but after a rain they pull out easily. I often fill one gallon pots since they transplant easily and share. A companion plant for the Mexican ruellia ?? Hum.......I sometimes have a fern growing in and around the soften the straight upward growth of the plant. It is such a delightful native plant to grow and play with - hacking it down every so often just will not hurt it. It's blooms do not last that long in a vase, perhaps a day. As you know seeds pop everywhere. That is what makes it so invasive. Q: I have Mexican petunia seeds. They are long and green, right? Should I split the pod and take the seeds out or plant the whole seed pod? A: I would wait 'til the pods are brown and mature and on the crunchy
side. Q: Hi, thanks for this great site. My friend gave me some cuttings of Mexican petunia. Can I use root power & plant them now? I reside in zone 7 (Greenville South Carolina). A: You can try with the root tone and propagation method of a cutting
but it is getting late in the season. A reader sends the following: Ruellia is a genus in the Acanthus Family. It comprises about 150 species native to tropical and temperate North and South America. Five species are native to Florida and three non-native exotic species have escaped cultivation and are listed as naturalized in the state. Of these three exotic species, clearly the one to watch is Mexican bluebell (Ruellia tweediana). The wild species ( Ruellia tweediana) can be invasive.Ruellia brittoniana, 3 ft. tall purple, carries a warning about its invasiveness.WARNING Companion Plants: Plant next to pentas ( Pentas lanceolata) for an effective contrast in both foliage and flower color and texture, with a purple verbena (Glandularia puchella) as ground cover below to mirror the larger, purple flowers of R. britonniana.*Native Species: Generally not available are:
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In
the wild species, of the Mexican petunia it will sprawl 3 - 4 feet and
grows as high as 4 - 6 feet.
Some questions from Emily's
Q: Emily, I purchased five Mexican Petunias
from Lowe's. Three of them are approximately 24" tall. Two of them
are really compact, probably 6" high and really bushy. These two are
doing great, but the other three look like someone poured hot water on
them. I have cut one back, divided it and replanted hoping they will live.
The balance of it, I put in water hoping it will root. What can the
problem be with the plants drooping so badly?