Blue Sky Vine Thunbergia grandiflora

One of the vines I have growing on my back fence along with my Passion Fruit (Passiflora edulis) and Coral (Antigonon leptopus) vines. It's not fragrant like the other two but it is worth having just for these beautiful blue flowers. It died off last year in one of our little cold snaps but it has finally recovered and is flowering well.




Family: Acanthaceae •
Genus: Thunbergia •
Species: grandiflora •
Country of Origin: India •
Common Names: Bengal Clock Vine, Clock Vine, Sky Flower •

From a distance, this twining, flowering vine looks like a morning glory and even up close the flowers are quite similar. The tubular flowers of the skyflower vine are a little deeper, about 3 in (7.6 cm) long, and are borne in drooping clusters. The most commonly seen varieties are sky blue to light violet although there is a white flowered type as well. Leaves are leathery and have a distinctive elongated heart shape. The plant grows fast in warm weather, easily covering a trellis or large section of fence in one season. It is one of the most free flowering vines for shade in the South and is underused due to lack of distribution. Growth slows or stops in cool temperatures, and the top is killed to the ground after a freeze. In frost free climates, it is evergreen. USDA Zones 8-11.
from (Thunbergia grandiflora)



Blue Sky Vine Thunbergia grandiflora by Eric Bronson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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