Glory to the Tibouchina

If you’re in a subtropical or tropical area you’ll likely have seen a Tibouchina a.k.a. glory bush around. The more common form around here (T. ‘Alstonville’) has bright purple flowers on a 2m+ tree with big thick leaves and granted, they normally flower around Autumn, but some varieties, like my little Tibouchina ‘Elsa’ bloom all summer long.

Tibouchina come from tropical South America/Brazil and the genus name comes from the native name in the Guianas region.

Short segue from plants to learn some geography: The Guianas is an isolated region, north of Brazil, bordered by jungles in the south and the Atlantic Ocean in the north. The region primarily consists of the countries French Guiana, Suriname, and Guyana. Unlike most of South America, which speaks Spanish and Portuguese, the official languages in this region are French, Dutch and English. Several African and Asian dialects are also present. Wikipedia claims it’s one of the most isolated, sparsely populated and racially diverse regions in the world. Intriguing!

Back to the plants: Despite the abundance of bright purple Tibouchina flowers (and the fact that they are very hard to miss!) Tibouchina flowers also come in pinks and whites. While most foliage is a dark green with dominate veins, there are variegated leaf forms and of course the silver hue of Tibouchina ‘Elsa’ (which has comparatively smallish white flowers with purple stamens).

Whilst not deciduous, the leaves that do fall are often tough and hard to break down, which can be rather annoying. But once established they are a drought hardy plant that require relatively little maintenance. A good prune after flowering helps keep them compact.

The old fashioned Tibouchina ‘Alstonville’ and the pink flowered T. ‘Kathleen’ might be 5m+ trees but new cultivars are available in much more manageable <1m shrub sizes - so hit up your local nursery and see what takes your fancy.