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Clitoria Ternatea

Hi, I just wondered if anyone has tried growing Clitoria ternatea, or Blue Butterfly Pea Flower in the UK?

It's native to Indonesia, but has also been introduced to India, Australia, etc. The flower is edible and it's used a natural food colouring in Thai and Malaysian dishes. My mum used to use it when she lived in Malaysia, and she gave me the idea of growing it.

I picked up some seeds from Ebay three years ago, but only just got round to sowing them. I had very low expectations because I didn't really look after the seeds so assume viability would be very low. To my surprise they've almost all sprouted, and I now have about 20 healthy seedlings on my windowsill.

Anyone come across this, or tried to grow it?

 

Posts

  • SalinoSalino Posts: 1,609

    ..well, I've not heard of it before, don't know about anyone else, but it's an interesting plant isn't it? curiously named, - appropriate I suppose when you see what it looks like...image

    I wish you all success with it, and congratulations for getting the seeds to germinate, very exciting..!  I don't think one could grow this out of doors except in summer, like a Bougainvillea perhaps...

    http://bit.ly/153nt8P

  • blackestblackest Posts: 623

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clitoria_ternatea

    apparently its edible when tender.

  • Hello,

    I liked the look of this climber and decided to grow something a bit unusual instead of sweet peas, so I ordered some seed from Thompson and Morgan.

    I started them off in February on the window sill but it was too cold and the majority of the seeds rotted, two germinated but did not develop so they may have been cold damaged also. It was a shame as I was looking forward to growing them but I may try again next year.

    Hope you have some success with them.

  • Just for once, my wife agrees image,about it been edible

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