Plectranthus 'Mona Lavender'

Mona Lavender is a quick-growing, herbaceous, perennial plant reaching up to 0.75 m in height, forming a lovely, rounded, dense bush. It has dark green, glossy leaves with intensely purple undersides and sprays of lavender flowers dashed with purple markings. It flowers very unpredictably, but does well in shortened daylight, which starts in autumn, but depending on how old the plant is and how much it has been pinched back, flowering can be extended right into early summer. Mona Lavender was bred by one of the horticulturists here at Kirstenbosch, Roger Jaques, in the late 1990s. It was a fairly long process involving much hand pollination and raising many thousands of seedlings, back crossing and raising many more thousands of seedlings - each time selecting out the best, most attractive individuals to go through to the next round of breeding.