Gardening Magazine

Irritating Plant of the Month January 2018 - the Honeymoon Ends

By Ozhene @papaver
It did not take long did it for me to find this plant irritating: the Tibouchina urvilleana I bought only four weeks ago.  I may, of course, just be unapologetically fickle (I am); but in this case I cannot decide if this plant is irritating or just plain rude.
I felt sorry for it sitting on the 'rescue me' table at a local garden center.  It was a bargain price and I thought it was worth trying to save it.  I quickly checked what growing conditions it needed and made the purchase.  It looked a little poorly when I bought it, but not terminal.
Irritating Plant of the Month January 2018 - the honeymoon ends Not too bad at all in fact.
So look at it now.
Irritating Plant of the Month January 2018 - the honeymoon ends Yep, leafless.  Each leaf has taken it in turns to curl up and drop off.  I suspected the rabbits of nibbling them but they confirmed that they are inanimate objects and therefore this was not possible.  So far I accept this reasoning.
Irritating Plant of the Month January 2018 - the honeymoon ends Look at it!  This is seriously 'I am not a happy plant' territory.  
Irritating Plant of the Month January 2018 - the honeymoon ends Withering - it is withering in front of my eyes.  I have kept it watered but not too much, but I think my big (and clearly unforgivable) mistake was that I put it in the conservatory.  My conservatory is quite cold and Tibouchina need to stay fairly warm.  Once I saw that the leaves were coming off I brought it into the lounge which is kept a lot warmer than the conservatory, but is it too late?
Irritating Plant of the Month January 2018 - the honeymoon ends I am hoping not, I think that there are encouraging signs that it will recover.  So if you could all keep your fingers crossed for it I would be very grateful (and so will the plant).

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