Butterfly Pea Vine Seed Packet
Plant Size Guide
Clitoria aka. Blue Butterfly Pea Vine (Clitoria ternatea) 30 seeds
Days to maturity: 60 days
Plant spacing: 1-3 plants per square foot, trellised
Sunlight requirements: 8-14 hours
Look out for: Thrips
Harvest notes: Harvest flowers daily
USDA plant hardiness zones 10-12
Lifecycle: Annual
Clitoria, commonly known as “pea vine” or “butterfly pea”, is a tropical plant native to temperate areas of the world, including Southeast Asia and Madagascar, where the flowers are often used as a food dye or dipped in batter and deep-fried. In Thailand, the blue flowers are traditionally used to make purple rice, which you do by making your rice with a handful of the flowers and then adding a splash of citrus, usually lime to change the color to purple. This is a super fun way to add color to your diet and include kids in the kitchen. Raising the pH of the water (usually by adding lemon juice) makes the infusion go from blue to purple. You can also infuse these flowers in coconut milk to make sweet blue tinted deserts, or throw your daily harvest of flowers into a bottle of liquor to turn it blue.
Although the seed pod is not edible, we love growing Clitoria in gardens and at the farm, allowing it to climb up any unused fence space and produce beautiful edible & medicinal bright blue flowers. Butterfly pea vine starts its growth slowly but then ramps up during the hottest months of the year, growing quickly and flowering profusely. We harvest the flowers daily for sale to chefs and to dry for teas and we are amazed when we come back to one mature plant day after day and find it full of flowers; the amount of flowers one plant can produce is astounding. Leave a few flowers on your plant to get pollinated and make brown seed pods and you’ll have plenty of pea vine seeds for next season. If you don’t get around to harvesting all of your seed pods they will burst open at maturity and self seed easily. Pollinators like bees and butterflies love to visit this plant, and sometimes when we are harvesting flowers we have to shake bees out of every one!
In Southeast Asian countries communities have been brewing and drinking butterfly pea vine tea for centuries, and it's just now becoming more popular in America. The traditional recipe is to brew the flowers along with lemongrass. The bright blue tea flavor is earthy and woody, similar to green tea.
Delivery Details
Delivery Details
When you place your order we head into our greenhouse to select the very best plants we have in stock for your garden. We label them with handwritten compostable wooden labels and pack them in recyclable boxes to keep them safe on their journey. Our delivery partners, Roadie, take it from there and head to the Redlands to pick up your order. Communication and tracking take place via Roadie and your driver will leave your plants in a safe and covered area.
Plant Care
Plant Care
When your plant delivery arrives, make sure you water your new plants thoroughly with a light spray of water (none of this thumb over the hose stuff). We recommend planting them within 10 days of receiving them. If you do intent to wait to plant them, we recommend placing them in a shallow reservoir (like a baking pan) and filling it with half an inch of water so they can drink the water from below while you are at work and place them in an area with plenty of sun. When planting in your garden always add a dash of Organic granular fertilizer, and give them extra water during their first week in their new home, while they adjust. We recommend disturbing the root ball as little as possible during planting.
About Our Plants
About Our Plants
All of our plants are grown in OMRI certified Organic materials (potting mix, fertilizer, seeds, etc.) and include Organic granular fertilizer, living locally-made compost, and have been cared for with healthy microorganisms from compost tea and microbial inoculants. We only use organic pesticides when needed. We only stock varieties that we have experience growing and that are season and climate appropriate for South Florida. Our curated inventory is simple enough for a beginner and interesting enough to keep an advanced gardeners attention, with new and rare varieties being added weekly.
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Clients Love Us
"Smooth, seamless experience. Professional packaging and delivery. I have two healthy plants... life is good."
"What a wonderful experience. Great customer service, and so helpful with all my questions and very accommodating. Would definitely recommend and will be buying again in the future."
“Healthy foliage when this plant arrived, and pushed out a bloom less than two weeks after being planted. Excellent!”
"As always, awesome customer service, large healthy plants!! Thank you so much!!"
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