About
Achimenes 'Hilda Michelssen' is a bushy, trailing perennial that can reach heights of up to 40 cm. It features dark green, serrated leaves and produces large, tubular flowers in a rich purple hue from summer into autumn. This plant grows from rhizomes, making it an excellent choice for adding texture and color to your garden during the warmer months.
About the genus
Achimenes are perennial plants with rhizomes that store nutrients, producing long, trailing stems. These stems support simple leaves that appear either opposite or in whorls. During the summer and autumn months, the plants produce conspicuous, salver-shaped flowers that emerge from the axils of the leaves.
Growing conditions
- Sunlight
- Full sun, Partial shade
- Soil type
- Loam
- Soil pH
- Acid, Alkaline, Neutral
- Soil moisture
- Moist but well-drained
- Aspect
- West-facing, South-facing, East-facing
- Exposure
- Sheltered
- UK hardiness
- H1C
Plant details
- Plant type
- Conservatory Greenhouse, Houseplants
- Habit
- Bushy, Trailing
- Foliage
- Deciduous
- Height
- 0.1-0.5 metres
- Spread
- 0.1-0.5 metres
- Time to full height
- 1 year
- Suggested uses
- Patio and container plants, Sub-tropical, Hanging basket
Care notes
- Cultivation
- Grow under glass in either peat-free, multi-purpose compost or peat-free John Innes No 2 loam-based compost in bright filtered light. To bring rhizomes into growth in spring, temperatures of 16-18°C (61-64°F) are ideal. Water sparingly until summer when plants should be watered freely. Apply a balanced liquid fertiliser at quarter strength at each watering
- Pruning
- No pruning required
- Propagation
- Propagate by division of rhizomes in spring or stem tip cuttings in spring (see softwood cuttings)
- Pest resistance
- May be susceptible to aphids, glasshouse red spider mite and thrips
- Disease resistance
- Generally disease-free