Ruellia elegans is an amazing plant with a large native range from Chile to Brazil. While some of the selections in the trade are not winter hardy, we have been thrilled with Ruellia ‘Ragin’ Cajun’. Our 3-year-old deciduous clumps are now 4′ tall x 8′ wide…what we call in the South, “big honkers.” Ruellia ‘Ragin’ Cajun’ is topped from June through frost with terminal clusters of 5-petaled, bright scarlet-red flowers. For us, this has proven amazingly easy to grow but performs best in rich moist soils. Our plants came from Logee’s via Dupont Nursery.
