Hi have no experience with Crossvine but Queens wreath is one vine I would recommend within it's climate zone. have had one almost 20 years and still has no bad habits. It is a weak climber though it has no tendrils and only weakly spirals.. so something very open is enough. i use PVC pipe,spaced 15 inches apart. I think a good way to do one would be on a pyramid so it could be viewed from all sides. Requires very little training to develop a weeping habit. mine was against a shed that Wilma took out so I'm working on the "fountain" effect. nice that it can be viewed from all sides. the purple is much more vigrous than the white IME. Have never been able to locate the double flowering type. One word of caution . lol One of the common names is sandpaper vine. so don't plant it where you brush against it. The leaves are incredibly rough gary

2 more boxes came yesterday. Thank you, Thank you! Ginger sent some great magazines. I love to look and dream. :) Also the loveliest bamboo hanging basket and seeds. It was REALLY beautiful! Thank you Ginger! And Debbie OK sent a box packed with goodies. I think it weighed 50 pounds. LOL...... It was great because everything was so nicely wrapped and my DD helped open them all. She laid claim to a garden rock, and the cutest girl fairy figurine. Which is also named Maya. Their were also candles, a rock with a turtle, hummingbird feeder, and I know I'm forgetting something. Oh that's right a beautiful journal which Maya has already claimed. She's writing gardening stories and drawing pictures in it. Thank you Debbie! It's great to be the Queen! Monica

Hello ladies and happy every Holiday I missed. To those of you who do know me, I am back and mentally back on track (I think). To those of you who don't, well I was I am a member, love everyone here. Went away to do some great mission work and had some very tragic things happen. Many hours of therapy later, and actually returning to the Dominican I think I have healed, I am not bitter, sad, or frightened to leave my house any more. I am able to talk about it and I feel that I can share with postive feelings now. But enough of that. Am I to late for April? Please tell me that I can play in April? Max is 4 and we just looked at Co-op preschool. HE is a mama's boy and didn't want to go to big boy school yet. Maryanne~ I have a box for you that I need to send, but um lost your address.. So Merry Christmas when it comes. Ahh. I just don't know what to say or who to say it to because I am scared I will leave someone out. I tried to read as many posts as my brain can handle, but I am sure that I will need some help. Babies and ornaments, tornados and ahhh.. I am not in Kansas anymore. Please feel free to email me with any personals that you'd love to share. I apologize for being gone so long. If there is anything that you want to know email me. If I need to re-join let me know if there is room. Mayanne_ my big sis.. I hope all is well, miss you and thanks for all your support thru this, even though I was a bad lil sis and became an introvert. But guess what? I am back and better. Missed you all Laura.... beans

I have a Mexican Flame Vine in a pot that I bring in for the winter. I don't think they are winter hardy in the DFW area. I wish they were, as mine doesn't bloom nearly enough under these conditions, but it does bloom for a while. Queen's Wreath is one of those borderline hardy/not hardy plants in the DFW area. I haven't grown Queen's Wreath at my house, because my trumpet vine won't let me - won't give up the space, but we have one at work. It's growing on a fence in full sun sort of out in the open. It's on a chain link fence near a corner of the property, that divides our property from an apartment complex, with a concrete wall perpendicular to the chain link part. There is grass on the apartment side of the fence, and a mulched herb garden on our side, with a concrete parking lot on the opposite side of the concrete wall. It's kind of hard to describe. The reason I'm boring you with all this is because I can't decide if it's a protected spot or not. It may be shielded from the wind by the apartments and that wall, but it's also very much in the open being on the chain link fence. Anyway, this Queen's Wreath has come back the last few years, and is spectacular in the late summer. I think it might be worth a try. It will die to the ground in the winter. Mexican Flame Vine and Queen's Wreath have very different looks. Both are good for nectaring insects, and the Queen's Wreath attracts hummers, too. Sally