Tibouchina granulosa 'Kathleen'

Take stem or tip cuttings 8-10cm long in spring. Trim each cutting to just below a pair of leaves, remove the bottom leaves and dip the cut end of cutting in hormone rooting powder. Plant the cutting in an 8cm pot filled with a moistened equal parts of peat moss and coarse sand or perlite. Enclose the whole in a plastic bag or propagating case and stand it in a warm room in bright filtered light. When new growth appears, uncover it and begin to water it moderately. After a further eight weeks, move the young plant into a 10cm pot of standard potting mixture and treat it as a mature specimen.

Tibouchina prefer slightly acidic soils with a good amount of organic matter and good drainage, but will adapt to most well-drained garden soils: from very acid to slightly alkaline. Tibouchinas will not thrive in soils that are too alkaline and will show signs of burn around the leaf margins and yellowing between the leaf veins. They are adapted to chalk, clay loam, loam, loamy sand, sandy clay loam and sandy loam soils; but if the soil is less than ideal, dig lots of acid compost into the planting hole and mulch the roots often.

Some flowers are open throughout the year but they are especially plentiful from late Spring to mid Winter