SA Garden Catalogue: Sri Lankan Wrightia

The Sri Lankan wrightia produces masses of star-shaped white flowers throughout the year. Presently both my little garden and the next door neighbour's have plenty of these cheerful 'stars' of white, dancing in the sunshine and occasional wind. I happily (wrongly) call it Thai jasmine because someone told me it looks like the slightly fragrant Wrightia tomentosa from Thailand. Maybe I should call it Sri Lankan or even Ceylon jasmine? But then there is no fragrance as one would associate with most jasmines. So (Sri Lankan) wrightia it is. Some garden blogs give the common name as Snowflakes, Milky way, Arctic snow. Pick what you like.





Scientific name: Wrightia antidysentrica
Common name: Sri Lankan wrightia
Family : Apocynaceae/Periwinkle
Origin: Sri Lanka






The plants in my garden are grown in three containers, and one has grown so very tall (more than nine/ten feet?), but has lesser blooms. Although the usual for this small-leafed shrub is 1-3 metres, mostly the plant is kept short for more flowers. Propagation is usually by marcotting, but sometimes you can get lucky by just cutting the stalks and poking them into the soil. Of a few, at least one or two will grow! This Sri Lankan wrightia loves the full sun, so in our tropical gardens they do thrive very well.

'Stars' in the garden or is it 'Snowflakes'? (CNB 2012)

Note: When one writes about the garden, the state of the weather inevitably comes up. This month of June has been very hot and humid. Heck, I usually sleep with the fan on, but these days I have to resort to the air conditioning. There has been no rain here for some time in this part of Shah Alam.
*Update 25 June: The haze from Sumatra caused the API (air pollutant index) today to read an unhealthy 252!