Brunfelsia 5L

October in the garden means soft shades of flowers and romantic sweet scents, and brunfelsia encapsulates all this in one good shrub: it covers itself in sweet-smelling flowers in shades of deep purple, lilac and pale white. It is these three shades of flowers carried simultaneously that led to its common name ‘Yesterday, today and tomorrow'.

Take advantage of all its lovely attributes and plant one of these slow-growing, large shrubs in a flowerbed near your bedroom window or in a big pot on your verandah. Remember this wise admonition from a fellow gardener when, on one dull winter's day, we stood in front of an early blooming brunfelsia and moaned about inconsequential things: "Don't think about yesterday; it will make you cry. Don't think about tomorrow; it will make you worry. Live for and think of today; it will make you laugh!” This plant in bloom is enough to make one laugh in sheer delight.