Sorry for having misled you Zoe, but I don't have T. tricolorum seeds at this time. However, if my pollinators come visit my plants (just started emerging), I will contact you via this thread.
Lisa,
our T. species seeds should be sown/sowed (please, somebody tell me which is correct) in early Fall in good alcaline soil with VERY GOOD DRAINAGE - add some Captan fungicide to the soil. Since they do not want to be transplanted, place the seeds at a distance of some 2 or 3in apart and cover your seeds with half an inch compost. Gently press down the top of the whole planter with something flat and water (less water is better than excess). Keep the seeds/seedlings humid but never soaked. I have no experience growing them indoors. I understand our dear late jmorth grew them in his basement - he might have posted some notes of his successful experience.
They will remain quite short plants in the first season, but can become very long vines from the second year on.
Overwatering will kill them. Once the flowers are pollinated, the whole vine will die back, but your little tubers(not larger than 3/4in in diameter) will remain to provide you with an amazing display of growth and flowers.
At the die back stadium water them sparingly and don't get tempted to dig your tubers - this might kill them.
THE IDEAL POT
should be 40cm/16in deep. In my experience, the best pots are the ones I made myself from fishery discarded styrofoam boxes (yeah, they smell really bad before you wash them). It takes 2 of such boxes to make a nice planter. Cut out the bottom of one and hot-glue it to the top of the other. Cut out a lot of drainage holes on the bottom or just pinch/burn the holes with a hot iron.
Cut several 2 1/2 inches from the cut out bottom, hot glue the necessary squares until they reach some 4 inches and attach 6 'legs' to the planters bottom. If tropaeoum is planted in a box/planter without 'legs' to keep them at certain height, the tubers will escape to the garden soil, where they might not survive winter due to cold or dampness.
To make this planter worth, apply textured paint used for the exterior of buildings with a roller. NOBODY would guess they are styroform planters. Don't apply this paint to the exterior of the bottom. My planters are 11 or 12 years now and I do not see the need to replace them.
Saludos!
