I grow Gipsy Queen. It was the fastest, of those I've tried, to grow long and bloom. From a tiny 4" pot at purchase, it reached 8' long with about 25 blooms in its second year. Its off to a good start this year.

GQ is not grown with Westerland here. I don't think the colors compliment each other. I have Betty Corning growing with Westerland. Westerland opens orange but quickly fades to salmon and looks great with a blue or purple.

Westerland with Betty Corning and blue spiderwort.
{{gwi:221199}}

Thanks Harryshoe. Beautiful composition! Glad to hear GQ is vigorous and a good performer. Seems like maybe nobody is growing Honora.

My Westerland is grown in the shade, and tends to have fairly pronounced purplish tones at the edges, along with very reddish-purple foliage. I could be very wrong about the proposed pairing - haven't seen GQ in person - but can't quite let go of the idea just yet... That particular area of the garden is done so far in "sunset" tones, so I don't want to throw in any light blues over there. My East yard is my "morning" garden where I make liberal use of blue companions (3 H.F. Youngs - my fave) to pink OGRs, white lilies, etc.

Maybe I need to just break down and get one, and let it bloom in a pot before siting it. It could be I'm overdoing it on the purply-red and orange. I'm sure there are still some open spots around here somewhere...

Robinia, I've grown both, though really do much prefer Honora ...

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:581729}}

twrosz -

Thanks for chiming in! It looks really nice in the photo - love the red anthers. What do you like more about it? Is there much of a color difference? I'd love to hear any observations you have about either.

- robinia