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Duranta erecta 'Sapphire Showers' (Picotee Sky Flower) - Grown for its summer flowers and ornamental fruit, this selection of the popular Pigeon Berry may prove more compact than the species, which grows with an arching habit to 25 feet tall and nearly as wide - grown as a tree it is more upright in habit with a spread about half the width. In late spring and summer, cascading clusters of 3/4 inch wide tubular flowers are an intense violet-blue with a white picotee edge along the flared petal tips. As with the species the flowers on this selection are followed by wonderfully contrasting orange-yellow berries. In mild climates this plant can be in flower nearly year-round with flowers and fruit appearing at the same time. Besides its more compact nature, 'Sapphire Showers' seems to be lacking the long spines that are occasionally found arising from the leaf axils on typical Duranta erecta plants.
Best planted in full sun with frequent deep watering and is hardy to about 20-25 ° F. A good choice for espaliers, as a small tree or large bush; all forms benefit from frequent selective pruning. Flowers are very attractive to butterflies. The attractive fruits and the foliage have saponins that are poisonous to humans. Both are considered to be bitter and while poisonings in the US were unreported in 1986 when Poisonous Plants of California was published (Thomas C. Fuller and Elizabeth McClintock, University of California Press, 1986), there were reports of children becoming ill from eating berries in Australia.
Duranta erecta, long grown as Duranta repens, is native to the New World from Florida, the Caribbean south to Brazil. The name for the genus honors Castore Durante (AKA Castor Durante da Gualdo) a 16th century Italian botanist and physician who wrote a book in 1585 describing medicinal plants from Europe and East and West Indies. The specific epithet is descriptive of the upright habit of the plant and it has many common names, including golden dewdrop, pigeon-berry and sky-flower.
We grew this cultivar from 2002 until 2013 but also continuously grew the original Duranta erecta selection we made earlier that we called Duranta erecta 'Alice Keck Park' and also long grew another species in the genus, Duranta stenostachya.
The information displayed on this page about Duranta erecta 'Sapphire Showers' is based on the research we have conducted about it in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.
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