Saturday 4 July 2015

How to Grow Butterfly Pea Vine In Pots and care for them.

The Butterfly pea is a creeper with beautiful flowers shaped like a conch.It belongs to the pea family.Also known by other names such as Ciltoria Ternatea,Bunga Telang,Aparijata,Shankha Pushpi,Anchan ,Vishnukanta etc.Butterfly pea flowers come in shades of Blue,White,Purple,and sometimes its a mix of two colors like White and Blue together due to cross pollination there are also double petaled varieties .There are many species of Butterfly pea. Its an easy to grow creeper and helps in turning the soil fertile.The Butterfly pea creeper blooms profusely during the summers.



Caring for the plants is very simple pinch of the tips to promote bushy growth or else the vine will grow lanky with only a single stem its best if you remove the flowers so that the vine does not go into seed production phase to soon,apart from this you don't have to do much in fact I have observed that the Butterflypea vine does well in poor soil it can grow in any soil type does not need any fertilization so its pretty much a low maintenance and no fuss vine to grow.Infact the plant is know to condition poor soil and helps in making it fertile the poorer the soil quality the plant tends to bloom profusely.





                    

The flowers are borne upside down on the creeper and bloom in the mornings.Once the flower drops of naturally an elongated pea pod develops this pod has many tiny seeds in it, once mature the pod and the seeds within it dry, the pod then splits open dispersing the tiny black seeds from within,the outer skin of the empty pea pod curls when split.



                           
I happened to collect some Butterfly pea seeds from a Butterfly pea  plant that was growing wild near the road side on one of our trips to Thailand,back home I am familiar and have always seen the common Blue Butterfly pea but this Butterfly pea vine was different it had Butterfly pea flowers in a beautiful shade of Lilac color,I was very happy with my newly found treasure of seeds and I couldn't wait to get back home and plant them in my potted garden.





I planted the seeds during the rainy season and after two weeks the seeds germinated,my joy knew no bounds.The creeper of the Butterfly pea Vine grew really fast and it also started flowering about a month later,I supported it with a bamboo stick so that it had something to creep upon.Couple of days later had seen that the leaves at the base were severely infected with white flies I was so disappointed because i had no seeds left  to start a new Butterfly pea  plant and my existing plants never gave me any seeds,what do i do now i just cut the entire vine from the base and left the roots intact in the pot,I just hoped and prayed that it survives .It took a lot of time about six months to be precise One day I noticed that new leaves had sprouted and  the Butterfly pea vine bloomed again.



I have now decided to leave the flowers on the vine itself so that i can harvest some seeds that i can keep as a back up just in case something may go wrong to it again though i hope it wont cause now i keep a check on the underside of the leaves for any hidden pests.




Blue Butterfly pea flowers are used as a natural dye or food color,It is widely used in Malay,Burmese and Thai cooking.The flowers are used in traditional medicine in India and China.An extract of Clitoria Ternatea the most commonly found species of the butterfly pea has recently been found to have a high concentration of active peptides that have antimicrobial properties.



Butterfly peas make great garden plants. They are fast growing creepers, climbing up almost anything with great ease, their slender flexible stems happily twining around supporting twigs, branches and outcroppings. Being members of the legume family, they have root nodules that contain rhizobium, a fungus that converts atmospheric nitrogen into usable nitrates for your soil,so they are great for any garden.






Happy Gardening To All !!

30 comments:

  1. Hi, does the plant need a big pot or needs transplanting? Currently I'm growing it in a small starter pot, and there are few leaves growing out already. Thanks

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    1. Does not require large pot, 10 to 12 inch pot is enough...

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  2. I hate this plant. It appeared everywhere in my yard but only after I tilled the soil for gardening. I am trying to get rid of it but the root system is deep and tough. It is so invasive. BTW, I am in zone 8a. It comes back every year.

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    1. If this plant grow to much in your garden is maybe because you need it! Look at properties of Shanka pushpi and look on yourself.... Enjoy this plant good for mind

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    2. You hate this plant?? Get the seeds and sell them ( you will no longer hate this plant ( it's beauty .awesome plant ...you shouldn't hate it ..

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  3. So lucky to have it in your yard. It makes great tea, gives great clear dreams.

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  4. They are my father's favourite and so I bought two of them for Father's Day. But I can't give them to him for another day and I would need to board a train with them. Hope they don't die or get injured. *finger's crossed*

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  5. I potted in march and the climbers hafe grown up. But itsnnot yet started blooming. When dows it bloom or how long does it take?

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  6. I started seeds for both the double blue and double white ternatea (butterfly pea) inside in May, and some outside in pots as well. The majority of the seeds sprouted and the ones in pots outside are 3-4 inches tall. I am excited to see what they will look like when they bloom, but I have read that they don't bloom until mid- to late-summer. I have also read that pinching them back will cause them to become bushier, so I will wait until they're a little bigger and try that on some of them. This is my first time growing them, and I'm in USDA Zone 7, so these will just be annuals for me. I will save seeds!

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  7. hello, I am located in South East Fl, I am looking into buying some of these as I want them for tea, I was just wondering if I can star them on the side of my mobile home and hopefully they will cover my entire house however we only seem to sand for dirt, can I put them in pots and keep them there forever, also I live near the ocean so we have a non stop ocean breeze will that hurt them? Thank you

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    1. I don't have an answer for you, but would love to know how your butterfly pea project is doing and if the vines have grown and covered your house as you were hoping.

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    2. I am growing the blue double clitoria terneata in zone 9 FL. This plant seems to like any soil so if you are in South East, FL it will be fine. I remember growing it in P.R. and it is actually wild there. Would Also like to know if your project is going good. Hope so.

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    3. look for 'plantsages' on instagram or facebook

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. I live in Germany and I'm interested to plant this in a pot first then in the garden later. I wonder if this will grow in our garden. What is the best time to plant this on a pot and in the garden? I saw this on a video posted by an american young man on You Tube. His You tube name is Finding Tom. He frequently travels to the Philippines and in one of his travels to Mindanao, (the most southern part of the Philippines) in a city called General Santos, he went to a restaurant and he was served with blue rice. He was allowed to document it in the kitchen and found out that the Chef extracted the color of the blue butterfly pea flowers by boiling it and using the extracted colored water to cook the rice with.

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  10. Will they grow and bloom year round in pots inside my home?

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  11. How many months you can harvest seeds?

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    1. If you leave the flowers on the vine and they get pollinated by bees or other insects, they will become seed pods. You can also try self-pollinating them - flower to flower. Good luck!

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  12. Hi,
    Is there any proper time of the year when we need to do the cutting of the plant for proper growth?

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  13. Hi may I ask for advice on how to prune or trim the right way ? I have 3 growing and I was hoping you can help me make it climb higher in a certain path for it to climb. Many thanks

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  14. I live in the south of France and have managed to grow one plant from seed that I brought back from Sri Lanka. So far I have kept it indoors but I am in a dilemma whether to put it out on a front very sunny balcony (windy too, as I'm on a 5th floor on a south facing hill), or a shady back terrace that is more sheltered but only gets one or two hours of sun per day (early morning, early evening). Winter temperatures here drop to 7C, so I guess I would need to bring it in on resign myself to having to try to raise from seed every year. What would you advise?

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  15. I sowed the seed in july and it has just started raining here in mumbai. Will the seeds germinate and continue to grow in such climate?

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  16. I brought my seeds from Sri Lanka to France and sowed them indoors in February. Out of a half dozen or so seeds, one plant eventually grew and is now about 30cm high. However I have nurtured it indoors and even now it is 28C out on my sunny balcony, I am keeping it inside as I'm afraid that it won't like the windy environment of a fifth floor apartment balcony. It hasn't flowered yet but keeps coming up with new leaves and is very attractive.

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  17. hi! can you please help me? i am growing butterfly peas and i am not sure how much to water them so can you tell me? thanks btw i live in singapore so its hot here

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    1. I live in the Philippines and I have them in pots climbing on my grilled fence. I water them everyday - even twice a day on a hot day.

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  18. I have come close to killing mine at least twice. I have brought in in and it sits in a very sunny position. I was afraid I was overwatering but it seems to be doing better now that I have stopped watering it so much.

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  19. My seedlings are about 5-6 inches tall now. I wan to plant some in my garden and pot some. I live in South East Pennsylvania.. Will the plants survive the winter.













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  20. Very iffy that they will survive. You need to protect them from the cold weather.

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  21. Found a USA source out of Texas
    https://centerofthewebb.ecrater.com/ Rare and exotic seeds

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  22. #ඉඩ්
    #ඉගෝ
    #ඊඩිස්

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