Hardenbergia Violacea – Happy Wanderer Plant Introduction

Hardenbergia violacea commonly known as purple coral pea, lilac vine and happy wanderer plant will definitely bring joy and a cheerful spirit to your garden. The name happy wanderer comes from its vine’s vigorous and rampant growth habit. This Australian native is a fast-growing vine that produces leathery, dark green, egg-shaped leaves and a fabulous habit of climbing nearly anything in front of it. It produces superb pea-shaped purple- or lilac-colored flowers in clusters. It forms a dense covering that is perfect as a groundcover for a purple carpet or for smothering weeds and is a fantastic climber and can make an ideal showpiece or for hiding unsightly walls and fences. This enduring, hard to kill vine is an excellent groundcover especially for difficult to mow areas such as slopes. It naturally attracts native butterflies, bees and birds.

Hardenbergia Violacea – Happy Wanderer Plant Soil & Drainage

Happy wanderer is a hardy plant and does not require a specific soil type and will happily grow in most soils as long as it has good drainage.

Hardenbergia Violacea – Happy Wanderer Plant Lighting and Position

Hardenbergia violecea prefers sunny locations but will tolerate some shade. It will bloom more if it gets full sun.

Hardenbergia Violacea – Happy Wanderer Plant Watering

This plant once established is drought-tolerant and does not require much supplemental watering in temperate Australian climates. Happy wanderer should not be watered more than necessary, too much water can cause fungal infections and other plant diseases.

Hardenbergia Violacea – Happy Wanderer Plant Temperature

Happy wanderer prefers growing in warm climates but can handle cold and the occasional frost.

Hardenbergia Violacea – Happy Wanderer Plant Fertilizer

Happy wanderer is a fast-growing vine plant even without fertilizer, but it will thrive more if you apply a controlled release fertilizer to promote flowers.

We recommend using our Plant Food available here. 

Hardenbergia Violacea – Happy Wanderer Plant Propagating

You can propagate through seeds, they have a tough seed coat so it is recommended to soak them in lukewarm water for 24hrs before sowing them on to the soil surface. Use a peaty or sandy soil and press the seeds down. Ensure the soil is moist and keep the pots indoors without any direct sunlight. Wait for the seed to germinate for around 30-60 days and allow to establish before replanting them in the ground outdoors. You can also propagate the happy wanderer using cuttings. During active growing months take a healthy stem on a well-growing vine that should be about 15-20cm long. Dip the cuttings in a rooting hormone before planting them in a pot. Keep the soil moist to help the roots grow. You should start to see new growth within a couple of weeks.

Hardenbergia Violacea – Happy Wanderer Plant Toxicity for Pet

Although many other flowering vines have toxic parts, happy wanderer is nontoxic.

Hardenbergia Violacea – Happy Wanderer Plant Pests and Diseases

Happy wanderers are attractive to snails, slugs, and leaf eating insects such as caterpillars which can be a problem. Keep an eye out for these pests or you can use pesticides or insecticides to keep them away from your plant, especially while it is becoming established.

For more information on how to manage common plant pests, head to our blog here.

Hardenbergia Violacea – Happy Wanderer Plant Pruning

Pruning is necessary if you want to prevent spreading of the vine all over the garden. Prune once in a while to keep things under control. To make your Hardenbergia fuller and encourage better blooming of flowers do a regular trimming of leaves and branches.

Hardenbergia Violacea – Happy Wanderer Plant Design Tips

As is often the case, we forget to appreciate what’s in our own backyard and for feature climbers we often fall back on exotics such as Wisteria or Bougainvillea. Meanwhile many around the World are using Hardenbergia Violacea as a feature plant and to great success. In Japan it has become a unique flowering showpiece as an indoor plant, while in German Botanical Gardens it’s been used as a beautiful climber over their glasshouse metal arched structure. Unlike Bougainvillea, it has the advantage of being evergreen and with it’s distinct gumtree like leaves is unmistakably Australian. Being drought resistant and loved by native flora while packing a punch of incredible and often prolific purple flowers it is a great choice. It can become a little unwieldy so grooming and directing it to where you want it to go is important. The stunning purple flowers can make it a fabulous backdrop to smaller yellow flowers in front, such as Billy Buttons or sunflowers.