Tecomaria or orange bignonia (Tecoma capensis)

The tecomaria or orange bignonia is a plant whose flowers are excellent for ornamentation. Its scientific name is tecoma capensis and belongs to the Bignoniaceae. Its flowers are beautiful and stand out for that powerful orange color. In this article we are going to show you the main characteristics and the main care you need.

Do you want to have the tecomaría in your garden and take care of it correctly? Keep reading because we tell you everything.

Main characteristics of the orange bignonia

It is a shrub with some tendencies to be a climber. Its orange flowers sometimes look like red. It grows from early fall to late winter. It is perfect for attracting wildlife to your garden, since many birds, including the hummingbird, feed on its delicious nectar.

Its leaves are oval and small in size. However, having climbing tendencies, they are shrubs that spread a lot and can give us some leafiness to our garden in the middle of winter. In general, all plants flower during the spring and this makes the garden quite sad and dull during the winter months. Thanks to the orange bignonia, You will be able to have not only leafiness, but also a wonderful color in these cold and desolate times.

The leaves are green and its branches climb. For them to go in the right place, we must guide them as they grow. If we want, we can also anchor them to the wall with wires and spikes. Sometimes you can also see it climbing and spreading through other plants that are nearby, over walls or even a rock.

The organs that it uses to be able to climb are the tendrils, uncinos and the adventitious roots. Thanks to these organs, they are able to twist around the place they have at hand to extend their useful surface to carry out photosynthesis. You have to be careful with this vine because it is capable of drying out other plants or trees if it is not pruned or redirected properly. This is because they block other plants and do not allow them to photosynthesize well. This does not mean that they are parasitic plants far from it.

Distribution area

The tecomaría we can find it from naturally in South Africa, Swaziland and southern Mozambique. It is cultivated in many areas around the world and, due to its ability to spread, it is considered an invasive species on some islands such as the Azores.

The areas where they are most cultivated are in Asia, Hawaii and South America.

Tecoma capensis culture requirements

If we want to grow tecomaría in our garden to have this beautiful winter color, we will need to meet some requirements. The first is light. As expected, this plant usually moves and grows in those directions where it finds a greater amount of sunlight to carry out photosynthesis. Therefore, it requires a location in direct sunlight. It can also survive in semi-shade, but ideally it should grow in direct sunlight.

Regarding temperatures, being a winter plant, it is able to withstand low temperatures and some frosts. It can live well even in temperatures of -8 degrees, so I don't think there are many problems in terms of the temperature regime. The soil where we grow it must have good aeration and drainage. We must not forget that the vast majority of plants drown when the ground gets flooded. Ideally, when we water or there are prolonged rains, the soil has good drainage to avoid an excess accumulation of water that can lead the plant to rot and die.

Its cultivation is not very demanding in terms of care and maintenance since it has great resistance to all kinds of adverse conditions. We find ourselves with incredible ease when it comes to withstanding times of little rainfall or even drought. Of course, this process of adaptation to harsher circumstances is due to the fact that it has been in the cultivated land for a long time. A freshly grown orange bignonia does not have these characteristics.

If the soil is alkaline, the plant will suffer from chlorosis. Therefore, you will need a neutral or slightly acidic soil. If this happens, we can add iron chelates to the soil to modify the pH.

Necessary care

This plant needs a light pruning at the ends of the stems in late winter. In this way we can allow the plant to grow in optimal conditions in the following season. If we prune it regularly, after the flowering season, we will be getting our plant to keep a more compact appearance. This is ideal for those gardens that have little space and we do not want to saturate it with a plant that invades the surface of the others and do not allow them to photosynthesize.

Its growth is quite fast so, from the beginning, we must help and guide it in its growth. It can reach 3 meters high when it reaches maturity. It must be watered moderately to avoid fungal diseases. As we have mentioned before, a soil with good drainage is needed so that it does not exceed in humidity or get waterlogged.

Apart from pruning, one of the maintenance tasks that we must perform is the subscriber. The ideal is to fertilize with manure once we have done the pruning so that the plant has the necessary and sufficient nutrients to be able to grow again and have more productive branches with more showy flowers.

One of the pests to which it can be subjected has to do with the humidity mentioned before. Is about the white fly y mealybugs. With moderate watering and not having excess moisture in both the branches and the ground, we will avoid the spread of these unwanted pests.

If we want to multiply this plant, we can do it at any time of the year by the cuttings or seeds method. You have to know that the seed method is slower than that of cuttings.

I hope that with this information you can know more about the Thecoma capensis.