Here is some information based on my personal experiences with growing different types of Pipevine from seed and otherwise: Fimbriata grows well from seed and germinates fairly quickly. If you are in Texas, that would be first choice for ease of germination and growth. I got my seed from someone on one of the forums last year. You could do a search for "Fimbriata seeds" and find out who had them. I am getting little "pipes" on my plants. If they get pollinated, I should have some seed this fall. Since I live in Oklahoma, the Fimbriata is not hardy here and I'll have to give it winter protection, or start again from seed. I also planted Serpentaria seed last fall and it germinated. It takes a long time for the plants to get any size; whereas the Fimbriata grew rather quickly. Rod Angeroth offered the seed on our forum last fall, so watch for his posting. The Serpentaria plants have been the first choice of the Pipevines in my yard. Second choice has been Tomentosa. As soon as I find the caterpillars on the Serpentaria, I move them over to the Tomentosa to conserve the Serpentaria plants for egg laying. I have a seed pod on my Tomentosa but it hasn't matured yet. I'll see what happens when I plant the seeds as to whether it germinates easily. I may have some extra seeds to spare. Since this is my first time to have a pod mature, I don't know what to expect. My Tomentosa plants were either purchased or collected from outside my neighborhood where it grows wild. It is very hard to get the cuttings to root. I've had minimal success doing this. Clematitis takes a long time to germinate. After 6 months, 2 of my dozen seeds germinated. Those 2 plants have taken off. I have purchased 6 more plants from a native plant vendor, and Susan gave me a start. So far the Clematitis has been ignored in my garden. But, I think that it will be discovered as it spreads. I have Macrophylla also, but that has been my slowest grower, and it hasn't had any attention from the Pipevines. I didn't start it from seed, but purchased the plant from a native nursery in our state. Sandy

Sandy, Thank you very much for your description of the seeds. That sounds exactly what mine look like! That's a relief to know that it's what I have. You're right about them not looking like they could be viable. I never saw seeds like them before; if I hadn't been told that they are seeds and had just seen them lying somewhere, I'd probably have thrown them away thinking they were junk. The seeds came up fine for me. I also planted some Virginia Snakeroot, but those containers don't have any signs of life yet, but I'm hoping for the best. I also have A. macrophylla. I'm determined to get the Pipevine Swallowtail here someday; it hasn't yet been reported for my county. I think it's a beautiful butterfly, judging from pictures I've seen of it. If you'd like to see where I read about the tubular seed description, I've included the link to the website. Terrene, I appreciate your description, and like I told Sandy, your description fits the seeds that were given to me. I usually take for granted that what people send me is what they say it is, but then when I read the description of the seed on the website I was on reading about A. tomentosa (I'll include the link below for you to read if you'd like...it's not a lot to read) and it didn't sound like these at all, it got me to thinking that the person might have mislabeled their seeds by accident. I'm glad to find out that they are what I wanted. It's also good to know that the plants made it through your zone 5 winter. Since I'm in zone 6, I guess I shouldn't have a problem with them then. Thanks again. Now I hope that the plants will be okay on the "trellis" that I'm putting up for them. I bought a 50-ft roll of wire fencing at Lowe's for this purpose. I'm going to cut three 16-ft pieces, make each into a big circle with an approximate 5-ft diameter, and stack each circle on top of each other. The total height would be 12 feet, so I'm hoping that's tall enough considering I've read that the vine gets 20-30 feet long. This is the best setup that I can come up with for them. Cathy Here is a link that might be useful: Aristolochia tomentosa

Poisondart - the tropical pipevine, A. elegans, is poisonous for Gulf Frits. Gold Rims can be raised on it, but I don't think they make it up as far as Kentucky. If you're planning on using it for a host plant for the GFs, it won't work for them. The caterpillars will die on it. Pipevines that will work in your area are the ones that are not considered tropical, like A. serpentaria, A. tomentosa, A. macrophylla, and A. clematitis. Susan

Oh, thank you for the clarification, Sherry. Now that you mention this, I think you told me about this several years back. My vines are in a narrow raised bed, growing on a tall narrow trellis. I'll have to remember to keep a lookout in that bed. I should have only planted one vine but not knowing much about them years ago, I actually planted three vines on this one trellis. Most likely not the best situation but so far they're growing OK so have been reluctant to make changes. I did trim back the tops as you suggested and it made a big difference in the number of fresh vine endings, the very tender growth that mama pipevine looks for when depositing her eggs. I'm going down to south Florida to spend some time with my daughter and thought it would be nice to carry a few plants along to plant at her home. I think she'll allow me to create a butterfly and hummingbird bed there in her back yard. Lucky you with the American Beautyberry. The plant that hangs over into my yard is actually growing in the neighbors property. A new owner just moved in and I thought I'd best try to get a plant started of my own in case they decide to cut it down. The original owners gardener cut it way back a couple of years ago and left only a couple of branches that grew over the fence. I pinched the branches back this spring to create a lot of side branches and have had a lovely fall display of berries (although the mockingbirds have already gone through about half of them). Love, love, love this plant and the birds love, love, love the berries! :-) Mary