I suppose it probably is Ruellia brittoniana as it does very closely resemble it in some ways but most of the pictures I've googled are close-ups and the leaves seem to be more narrow and more abundant than the ones in question. The ones that I've seen seem more "airy" than the pictures...not so many and so so close together. Also, the color doesn't come across quite the same in the pictures but I suppose that could be because of growing conditions. Let me know what you think. Puppyscruff, did you grow yours from seed? It's not hardy here, is it? Any way I could see a picture of yours for comparison? Thank you. I really appreciate your help. Love strikes my fickle heart yet again!

Good Day, I too have a shade garden under pine trees, two actually. I have Korean Spice bush, hosta, lots of early spring bloomers but by mid summer the only thing that is still looking good is the bush and hostas. It is too dry to keep impatiens alive unless I water daily, I've even tried sinking pots to help hold the moisture, just won't grow. Any suggestions for something that will give me some color during the hot summer and won't require that I have to mortgage my house to pay the water bill? Thank You,Elphinstone

'Fragrant Blue' is one of those cultivars I've had a love-hate relationship with. I love its size, its shade of blue, its glaucous leaves, I hate its slow growth and the fact I've never smelled fragrance from its flowers. Until last year. I divided my original plant into 3 divisions 3 years ago to accommodate a trade request, kept 2, traded 1. One went back into its original spot and has grown, but nothing to write home about. The other I potted up and has done WAY better. It went from a single shoot 3 years ago to where this spring there are 7, but more important than that, it flowered last year and I got to smell its fragrance. It's rather different from most other fragrant hostas, not like 'Fragrant Bouquet' and its derivatives at all. Don't quite remember what it reminded me of, but I'll make a point of being more observant this year. I'll go way-out on a limb here, but I suspect that all of us who have slow-growing 'Fragrant Blue' samples have never smelled its fragrance, but if you're fortunate enough to have one that is more vigorous -like its supposed to be apparently- you probably are one of lucky ones who have. Pieter

Except for the 3rd one down, that's definately a caerulea. The third pic tho looks like a caerulea held up in front of a quadrangularis or 'ruby glow'... In fact, given about 10 minutes to move my ruby glow over by my caerulea (and granted a blooming caerulea, mine isn't at the moment) I betcha I could recreate that pic. Are those really it's leaves? If they are, I'd be suspect of that one... But all the others, yeah, that's caerulea. ("blue-crown" to it's friends) The leaves vary with the age of the plant & where they are- I've noticed the 'fingers' tend to get thinner out toward the end of the vine. There's also some variance between the flowers, often hard to see unless one from each plant is held next to the other. I have one from southern california who has 3" flowers, and one I bought here locally with 2" flowers. They look almost exactly the same, with the smaller one's corona being a bit lighter.. Just looking at the leaves tho I can tell no difference between the plants. Lots of variance in this particular plant.