Nierembergia

Family Solanaceae. Name: named after the Spanish botanist Nieremberg.

Description: the genus includes about 25 species occurring in the tropics and subtropics of the Americas. Annual and perennial herbaceous or semi-shrubby plants. Stems prostrate or creeping, branched, thin, rarely erect. Leaves arranged alternately, petiolate or sessile, entire, from linear to oblong-spatulate. Flowers solitary, terminal, sessile or on short pedicels, white with a purple center, blue, light violet. Fruit — a two-valved, many-seeded capsule.

Grows wild in Argentina. A perennial herbaceous plant grown as an annual. Stems strongly branched, thin, 30–90 cm tall. Leaves elongated. Flowers up to 2.5 cm in diameter, single, with a bluish-lilac corolla and a short yellow tube. Blooms in June–September. Fruits. Seeds remain viable for 3–4 years. In cultivation since 1932, more often the garden variety (N. h. var. violacea hort.)

Location: requires open, sunny sites. In shade it becomes leggy and flowers poorly.

Soil: loose, fertile, loamy soils are necessary for successful cultivation.

Care: prefers plentiful watering.

Propagation: by seed. For seedlings, sow in March in a greenhouse, or in April in cold frames. The sowing mix used: leaf mold, humus soil, sand, all in equal parts. Seedlings are pricked out into 9 cm pots, 3 per pot. Planting out into the ground is done at the end of May always with a clump of soil, maintaining a spacing of 20–30 cm between plants. Can be propagated by cuttings.

Use: recommended for flower beds, borders, and cut flowers.