Aftermidnight, I've seen many other plants this nice. His other ones. The reflection of this plant in the pot is genius. Growing a collection of caudices is beyond that. Jeff, I imagined a clay lace backdrop for the vine. The vine would grow in perfect, even twirls. The holes in the lace are heart-shaped, reflecting the leaves. You gonna work on that, Keith? ;)

Stephanias can be easily pruned and respond to the treatment quite well. They will either branch from lower on the vine or they will send out a completely new shoot from the caudex crown. You can also wrap the vine as Chris stated. Not only will this keep the plant more compact and less spread-y, it will also shade the caudex from strong light during the growing season.

I have had many failures with my seeds collected from my own two plants. Over the last two years, I have had only two germinate and only one survived. I tried putting them in the fridge before planting as had been advised by another grower but to no avail. I had kept the pots of ungerminated seeds for many months in case they were slow to germinate. No luck. As a last measure, I planted the rest of the seeds and left them in a sealed plastic bag to see what would happen. It is spring in this part of the world. Last week, I looked inside the bag again months after planting them. Some had started to germinate. I took the bag off and over the next week or so, I have had over 30 germinate. I don't know what has caused this sudden success but next time, I will replicate the time and method of planting. I don't get seeds every year as my two plants are out of synch when flowering and often do not overlap to allow me to pollinate (they are male and female plants). I am growing another 3 plants to try to get some to overlap flowering but they take a long time to flower for the first time. The oldest plants are over 20 years old and the 3 young ones are over 5 years but have not flowered yet.

it was just dehydrated. I had one that got banished to our basement when I moved. the planter it was in cracked unfortunately so It dried out. the entire caudex shriveled up and I almost cried because I thought I lost it. well, I gave it a watering just in case and it bounced right back after a week. it is now growing again this year. I know this thread is about 7 years old but I thought I'd add my 2 cents.