to ATP, Monica!

I'm in the north and have had rotten luck with these plants in the past, so I'm grateful for every bit of experience posted here.

Thanks so much for yours!

Your plants are doing well so far, right?

I can't wait to see pictures of some of these blooms!

Monica!!!.. would love to see some photos as well

Welcome to ATP and the seed forum, Monica. Glad to have you join.

Karen

I did grow these, once, when I lived in Minnesota. Started in January, planted out at end of May, no blooms until September, gone in October. Didn't seem to like a Zone 4a growing season

My "runt" is about 4' tall. It has a bit of wire netting for tendrils; however it appears to be attaching right to the rough wood fence. No blooms yet, and I just noticed that the 6.5" of rain in 12 hours has washed the mulch and soil off the top of the roots. Need to take care of that right now!

Will post my experience and photos as it grows...July and August are the ultimate test months for us.

Thanks for the welcome.

Monica

yeah.. love seeing something new!!

Yow! From Minnesota to South Texas? Eeek, culture shock anyone? Not to mention climate shock?

The climate shock wasn't as bad as the other. Ater leaving Minneapolis I had 5 years of traveling, going on archaeology digs in hot climates and living in Morocco to get me acclimated...and 30 years of cold to seep out of my bones!

And at least here we get a couple days warning for hurricanes instead of the 10 minutes for tornadoes I remember from "up north".

Here are 2 of mine planted out. Broke 2 of them off in the greenhouse about 2 inches from the soil. Do you think they will come up from the bottom? I guess that's way you grow more than your need.

springcolor said:Broke 2 of them off in the greenhouse about 2 inches from the soil. Do you think they will come up from the bottom? I guess that's way you grow more than your need.

Shouldn't be a problem. They'll be bushier which is good...more flowering area. How far apart did you plant them? They get pretty big, even in the north.

Are those the white ones?

Sadly no white ones. I had four seeds and 0 germinated. I'm sure they are purple.

Those are planted about 12 inches apart. They will grow on a chain link fence. I planted sweet peas there but only a few grew. Very cold and wet this spring.

I'm going to look for seeds this year on these plants.

The only thing about the broken plants is there are no leaves left on the plant just the stem.

springcolor said:The only thing about the broken plants is there are no leaves left on the plant just the stem.

I'd still give them a chance as long as the root system wasn't damaged. They may very well send up new shoots from the rootball if they're not too stressed. And 12"-15" spacing is what I see on the web so that should be okay.

My "runt" is about 6' now, but I don't think it likes Texas sun and 90F. Also is being attacked by some insect, mostly at bottom leaves. It's all a waiting game now.

Wish we had a bit of heat up this way. In the 50's today and drizzle.

springcolor said:Wish we had a bit of heat up this way. In the 50's today and drizzle.

50s - there might have been a few in January here....sounds heavenly. If only we could split the difference it'd be perfect weather for both of us.

Update: The poor vine didn't even make it to July . Full sun and 90F seemed to do it in. May sow again to see if they'll do better in autumn-winter here.

Anyone else have the little devils thriving?

bummer.. sorry to hear it

I'm sure full sun in Texas is a lot nastier than full sun here, regardless of temperature. We always get temps in the high 90's to 100's in July and August, but my Cup & Saucer vines do just fine. I have two purple ones and two white ones going now. When they get a bit bigger, I plan to take a couple of cuttings to start. These were my last seeds, so I need either to take cuttings or find more seeds! For some reason, cuttings from the white ones don't do as well as the purple ones. Same with the seeds.

Sorry to hear of your loss.

I had overwintered a C&S vine in my den that I grew outside last summer. It was thriving in my east facing window and was about eight feet long when I put the pot outside in early spring...it bit the dust, must not have liked the cool evenings.

When it was growing in the large pot last summer and had a couple blooms, the pot was under the shade of a wisteria tree. It crawled up the wisteria tree and did pretty well there.

Started another batch of the white. This time I'll keep 3 to put in various levels of shade. We have a long growing season, so hoping one of them will do well. Lucky I have extra seeds.

Hope you have success with them, Monica! I had a cardinal climber growing in with my white cup and saucer vine a couple of years ago and the contrast of the tiny bright red flowers with those big white bells looked really nice.