Botanical name: Plectranthus 'Mona Lavender
Mona Lavender is a quick-growing, herbaceous, perennial plant reaching up to 0.75 m in height, forming a lovely, rounded, dense bush. It has dark green, glossy leaves with intensely purple undersides and sprays of lavender flowers dashed with purple markings. Mona Lavender was bred by one of the horticulturists at Kirstenbosch, Roger Jaques, in the late 1990s. It was a fairly long process involving much hand pollination and raising many thousands of seedlings, back crossing and raising many more thousands of seedlings - each time selecting out the best, most attractive individuals to go through to the next round of breeding. Few months ago i purchased a plant from a local garden plant seller in Mysore, and maintain this plant in a pot. It gives a great pleasure as it blooms profusely and full of flower heads. I photographed it on 9th March, 2012.
