About
Columnea 'Chanticleer' is a trailing subshrub featuring elongated stems adorned with dark green, oval-shaped leaves that exhibit red hairs along their edges. Its tubular yellow flowers, measuring about 8 cm in length, showcase red-tipped ends and bloom during the spring and summer months. This plant thrives as a houseplant, particularly suited for hanging baskets or positioned on high shelves, allowing its stems to cascade gracefully.
About the genus
Columnea consists of evergreen shrubs and sub-shrubs characterized by their trailing stems, which support thick, simple leaves. From spring through autumn, you can find solitary or clustered tubular flowers emerging from the leaf axils.
Growing conditions
- Sunlight
- Partial shade
- Soil type
- Loam, Sand
- Soil pH
- Acid, Neutral
- Soil moisture
- Moist but well-drained
- Aspect
- East-facing, South-facing, West-facing
- Exposure
- Sheltered
- UK hardiness
- H1A
Plant details
- Plant type
- Houseplants
- Habit
- Trailing
- Foliage
- Evergreen
- Height
- 0.1-0.5 metres
- Spread
- 0.1-0.5 metres
- Time to full height
- 2-5 years
- Suggested uses
- Hanging basket, Houseplants
Care notes
- Cultivation
- Grow in pots or hanging baskets of open, humus-rich compost in bright filtered or indirect light. Mist regularly with tepid soft water to maintain high humidity. When in growth water freely but carefully with soft water and apply a quarter-strength, high potash liquid fertiliser at each watering. Water sparingly in winter. To maintain vigour, propagate every 2-3 years
- Pruning
- See pruning group 11
- Propagation
- Propagate by softwood cuttings
- Pest resistance
- May be susceptible to mealybugs, cyclamen mites and aphids
- Disease resistance
- May be susceptible to root and stem rots if overwatered