I'm in a far colder zone than you, so take my information with a grain of salt. My snail vine was already blooming when I got it and it did okay while it was hot here, but I dug it up and brought it in for the winter (not hardy here). I had read it would take over the room if given enough light indoors. It continued to bloom for a while even inside. Never set seed. And it eventually died, unfortunately.

Anywho, sometimes it takes time for things to really take off. Vinca's rule of thumb here is "First year sleep, second year creep, third year leap." Meaning I have to actually weed it the first year, second year I see some actual growth, third year I have to watch it or it will take over. Maybe it's the same with the snail vine.

"Animals" vary place by place. Some people swear japonica honeysuckle is an invasive plant. I guess, but it's slower than the friggin' grapevine that is smothering the honeysuckle - and the honeysuckle smells better. Now that grapevine is an animal to me. And Virginia Creeper is all over the place here... another animal, although not as bad as the grapevine.

I know you didn't ask to hear all this, lol.

I guess sometimes you just have to watch what you plant and see if it likes where you planted it or if it likes your area at all. Many things here go dormant in the heat (like my dang lawn), so I guess it could slow down growth of some things in your part of the country as well. Just my thoughts. Best wishes.

Terri :-)

Mine took a full season before it went wild. It didn't grow too much until the end of it's first summer and didn't begin blooming a lot until I had it inside for the winter. It's in a large pot (24") and I just allow it to spread where it wants. I'll cut it back to get it in the house. It's been loving our 100 degree temps and best of all I finally have a few seed pods! This is the first time in 3 years that it's produced seeds. Now I'm just waiting to see if my corkscrew vine will get seed pods too. My alata is one of my slower growing passies and it doesn't branch nearly as much as most of my others. It's not blooming well for me this season, but neither are most of my others. The only ones that are putting out a lot of blooms are my vitifolia and murucuja. Have you though about planting a P. vitifolia? That one grows like crazy and has big grape vine shaped leaves that should easily cover your fence. The blooms are also very pretty as is the fruit.
Karyn

P. Alata,or Ruby Glo..grows for me like a weed. I get over 100 foot long vines from it..and I cut it back several times a year each summer. BUT I lost my vine after Hurricane Wilma 2 years ago.
I cut it way back as usual and it died for some reason. And I just finally got a 'big' rooted cutting after 2 years of searching for it. It is my 'monster vine',once it gets going,and it is finally going!
I get the huge leaves and the giant flowers..never a fruit on it,EVER,in 10 years of growing it on my fence. BUT this new one is just starting to sprout side vines,and it is doing good. It is going to over take my snail vine,so I am aiming it towards the opposite end of the fence. That was my plan,half passion vine,half snail vine. At the rate the snail vine is growing..it is earning its name..SNAIL vine.SLOWWWWWWWW.