Welcome back Karyn! You surprised me. You might check in at The Seed Exchange Conversation side and give folks an update. Bill449 posted the message that you were in the hospital. I hope you are feeling much better. Sue

Congrats on the bloom. Mine finally went this year, right after I had just about given up since Bihai's was blooming and it looked like mine would not. I had eleven bloom clusters which I was very happy with since it had not bloomed ever before. Mine was grown from seed so I had no idea how long it would take. Gary, I am not sure it would help at this point, and maybe the cold was just too much, but I think heliconias come back a little slower. Something I found is that heliconias that get affected by cold become susceptible to fungus, especially the rhizome. Of course it is not visible so it would be easy to miss. I have taken on the policy of spraying with a good fungicide after a colder than normal spell that I think might have knocked the heliconias back. The one I use is called phyton, it is copper based, but I have been told it is systemic. I'll spray the leaves and drench the soil too. The nice thing about the phyton is it appears to be safe for some copper sensitive plants like orchids and bromeliads. Since then, my post winter losses have greatly diminished. You night give it a try, maybe it is not too late. Good luck Bill

I grew one in a greenhouse for several years. It was in a 5 gallon pot but eventually rooted into the ground. After 3-4 years it put out several racemes of flowers and they were amazing! Probably my favorite vine grown for flowers, the color is like those blue-green neoprene gloves you see in hardware stores! The vine always seemed to suffer through the summer, the greenhouse regularly reached over 100 degrees and the vine, of course, was close to the ceiling of the greenhouse. Eventually it died and although I was given some cuttings from a Botanic Garden, they were difficult to root without mist and they all dropped their leaves and died as well. So finally broke down and order one on line. It came in a tiny 4" pot but was healthy with good roots. It was transplanted to a one gallon and it put on a burst of growth in December and then pretty much stopped. As soon as the weather is warm enough, it will go into a 3 gallon and be put outside in semi-shade. The greenhouse is too hot and sadly our outside climate is too cold. Plant to make some kind of structure that will fit in a pot, allow the vine to climb and allow the flowers to hang freely, then keep the plant sheared to about 6-7 feet to keep it manageable. Can't wait to see it flower again!

Would anybody know or have any information on how the Jade Vine flowers are pollinated? We have the Jade Vines flowering all year round in the Philippines but have NEVER got seeds from them (not the ones in our nursery anyway). They would set seed in the wild and my mother said that they are big seeds, like half the size of a golfball. She said that germinating them there is not a problem but they are very slow and produce very skinny seedlings. Seedlings are also irresponsibly collected in the wild by the mountain people to be sold in the city. I will not be surprised that in a few years time, this beautiful vine would nowhere be found there where they used to flourish. Information on pollination of this plant would help a lot in saving it.