root, yeah- i kind of recall those pretty pix. so many things do well with morning sun- it sounds like a great spot. i may be able to bring you asarina babes in spring, but i don't think they normally show up til it warms up nicely. i'll keep my eyes peeled. it's much more subtle than mandevilla, though, that's for sure! and it's only annual, but if you get it there it'll seed around. crossing my fingers for your mandevilla. someone brought little ones to the fall swap and i grabbed one. not sure if it's still going or not- it's in the basement, dormant. the bowtie is amazing (i saw it in person at JCRA one time and about peed myself), but i have yet to find a seed source and plants are pricey and hard to find. i've not seen it again at JCRA- and that was about 4-5 yrs ago. john, if they're issai you don't have to worry as much. it's self fertile, for one thing , tho it does better with a male pollinator, but it's also not early as crazy vigorous as the regular hardies. and that's a really good thing, actually! means you won't have to prune 2-4x a summer like i do/should. my small 4 or 5 yrs old issai may have died in the drought, but i can tell you it definitely did bloom and set fruit much earlier & smaller than my anna did- though i never did get to try any (birds or something got fruit first yr and the frost got it last yr). i don't know if your male will bloom if it's kept in a pot. if i were you, i'd stick him over by the woods and let him semi-climb up into some trees and keep him whacked back a bit. then when he blooms, just cut that cluster off & hand pollinate. that's how i get the best fruit set myself. i don't trust the bees since there's so few anymore. my male was shy bloomer and about 2yrs behind my girl. so, if yours is the same, when your issais bloom, come get some branches from my guy & pollinate. a sort of a stud service if you will.... heh heh heh i was shocked about that solanum thingy. i literally had it in a cup a while and noticed it still looked perky and finally stuck it in some dirt (didn't have roots at that point), and it's got new growth so i guess it rooted. it was just a little sprig. the plant you cut it from was butt ugly, so it must be the same thing. the blooms are gorgeous, tho- and your vines at home are beautiful. hey, when you're whacking away at that thunbergia see if you can get some to root. i was way wowed when i saw it blooming one time at logan's and have coveted it ever since. it's really hard to miss, that's for sure! like a giant blue/lav black eyed susan vine. but with white eyes.

Crap! I blew it Daniella. I woke up late cause I woke up at 4 am to a couple people dressed in white tyvek coveralls, with hoods pulled over there heads! They were right under my bedroom window crawling on there bellies acting very strange. Then a car pulled up and talked to them and left and they came back to my yard. I thought I was gonna have to cap em til I realized they were wasted. I ran them off and called the law then went back to bed. Just woke up a lil while ago. I was gonna try and get it shipped out still but, I started seperating mimosa seeds from pods and I noticed some little grey beetles in the grocery bag.Then I seen some emerging from seeds. I proly busted open 30 seeds from different pods out of the quarter grocery bag that me and Danielle picked and every seed had a larva in it. Glad I caught that before I sent you 500 little grey beetles in a box :) I think UPS might be open later I'll check with them. If not I'll have to wait til monday. First I gotta see if I cant find some mimosa seedlings already growing. I'm sorry. I'll keep you posted

Hi Virginia: How I'm growing it is another thing I'm going to change next year 'cause I have not had a lot of flower production, either. This vine's really been a bit of a challenge :-) Mine has been growing up an arbor, southern exposure. Getting zero shade from late morning on. But, my "mother" plant came to me as a tuber, and after researching the ins and outs of caring for the thing, I decided to put it in a pot so I could easily bring it in for over-wintering. At the time, I didn't want to take the chance I might ruin the tuber when digging it up. (To plant, I sink the pot about 95% down into the garden bed.) Don't know if it being in the pot has helped to cut down on flowering OR if it's the location in the garden. I've also had the problem of many of the leaves falling off. Grrrrr... So, next spring I'm going to do an experiment. I'm going to keep my tuber in the pot, but will also plant vines grown from seeds, which I didn't do this year (gave away ALL my seed starts at the spring swap). I'll also try some in another location. I'm determined to get lots of flowers and pods next year!! Pat was telling me about how wonderful the wafting aroma from the flowers smells...ha! I haven't had that joy yet!! Claudia P.S. Having fun with html...LOL

The previous post from thistle is correct - pruning, pruning, pruning! Let me guess: the one trained into a tree gets pruned regularly to maintain the tree shape, and the one on the fence just grows wild? There's your answer right there. You have got to stay on top of these things or else they just spread leafy vines everywhere. You have to know a couple of things about how they grow to get it right. Google "pruning wisteria" for more info. To quickly summarize... The flower buds are set at the end of the summer, then grow out and bloom in the spring. The green leafy runners that the vine sends out do not produce any flowers. If you pinch them off the new ones after they have six or eight nodes (sets of leaves), they will develop side shoots that may flower later in the spring or the next year. I have a 25x10 foot wistera here in Chicago that blossoms consistently. I am training it to grow and cover a two-story brick wall, so I am pruning and rearranging it all the time to grow where I want it. I also have another in the same spot. It has never bloomed (it started as just a six-inch sprout two years ago!) but then I have also never pruned it. On 90+ degree days, these things are rampant. I have seen either of them extend a shoot by a foot from one day to the next! When it's cooler, in the 70s, they will barely grow at all.