My Thunbergia Grandiflora

[MrSeedy]

I was trying to think how long I've had my Thunbergia grandiflora , and I think it's at least ten years, from a small cutting I ordered mailorder. Never seen them offered here even as a summer "annual" vine, though they are perennial tropical vines and can be kept over winter , providing they don't take over your house. I'm trying something different this year instead of running a few strings on the back porch for it to climb. Anyway it's not nearly as robust of strong growing this year , and it could do with a bigger pot or fresh soil or something. I bring it indoors in the fall, and it goes in a small west window , that sees little sun in midwinter, and since it's near my very cold back entrance , it's also very chilly there. I've even had things freeze if they were sitting on that floor, so I place the pot up off the floor. Were the darn thing near a large sunny window where I could "train" it through the winter, it would provide flowers all winter, as it can flower 12 months of the year with wamth and plenty of light. However!!! It's in a five gallon container now , and though I have a habit of moving plants all the way up to 21in. diameter pots, I hate dealing with those large heavy pots that cost a fortune and cost a fortune just to buy all the extra potting mix required. I guess I could relent for the poor thing and go up a couple of inches, but then it might decide to take over again. Restricting pot size does slow down some of those rampant growers. I've noticed with some "suspicion" that logees list the heights of many of the tropical vining plants it sells as three or four feet, but when you see the pictures of theirs, all the plants have been trained to grow on some low supports and believe me trying to do that with plants that can grow three feet in just a few days is quite a feat!!!

[MrSeedy]

Here's a closeup of the flowers , and I do love blue. It also comes in a "white" cultivar , I believe, and is related to the Black Eyed Susan vine which is the annual , and there are some upright busy species , I'd love to try some day , since they'd be easier to "manage" and control. The common name from one source is "Sky Flower" though there's another blue flowered tropical vine that's been mentioned by the same common name , and that's the Duranta someone mentioned. I'd love that one as well , someday!!

[maynardmarie]

MrS I am impressed that you grow and flower it in a pot in your zone. Would love to have one in my yard, but they get monstous size here in the ground and can quickly take over everything else LOL
It is beautiful and it must love you bunches :wub:

[MrSeedy]

I'm afraid should I start repotting it up to ever bigger pots , maynardmarie, it would just go "NUTTTS", and try to eat my house. I've heard if they're planted on a large trellis , they can cover the entire thing in a year, from a small "start". Of course the bouganivilleas can do the same thing as can many other tropical vines.
Trying to keep them or many tropical vines as houseplants is a real challenge if they do decide they like your indoor growing conditions since they'd quickly cover over a large picture window indoors.

[maynardmarie]

I have the thunbergia erecta aka king's mantle, well actually I have three and it is bloom almost continuously
Here is a shot of one of the 2 I have on either side of the back of the arbor

[maynardmarie]

and this is a close up of the flowers...one of the only shots that has ever gotten the color very close to true....have a hard time with deep blues and purples!

[MrSeedy]

I do believe that's one of two upright growing Thunbergias I've thought of growing, though it does look like that one might need some considerabel pruning to keep it from getting too large for my house. I love the color and it's a deeper blue than the grandiflora.

[maynardmarie]

MrS it is a great one for pruning back alot and still getting blooms...in fact should have already cut mine back, it is starting to get a bit leggy ^_^

[MrSeedy]

That's one thing I do like about some of the tropicals , is that they'll tollerate frequent heavy pruning and still keep going , but on the other hand I've found some that will go into shock if they're cut all the way back to the older growth where there are few leaves to support them . I nearly killed my passion flower again with a late spring pruning this year and it's still looking much weaker than it has most summers by this time. Could be another problem there however. I must get some new "starting" mix, because the cuttings I tried to start when I pruned the passionflower, all got moldy and didn't root, shortly after sticking them in the potting mix, and I think it was just the lack of using a "sterile" mix.

[opalibra10]

MrSeedy,

Love your Sky vine, that is such a pretty color, thumbs up on growing it up there in your climate! I wonder if you could root prune it to keep it in its 5 gallon pot? I know some plants don't like to be root pruned but I usually do that to alot of our potted plants and haven't lost any as I don't want to have to deal with moving a large heavy pot either! That is great you have been growing it for 10 years, maynard is right, it must love you bunches!

[Ginny42]

MrSeedy, I don't know how I missed this post, but I was really looking forward to seeing your thunbergia blooms this year. Thanks for posting those beauties, they are my favorite of all the great blooms you post. ;) :D

[adenium]

Your thunbergias are really beautiful. I always wanted to have one on my balcony, but I couldn't find any plants or seeds and wasn't sure it would grow here in Switzerland. Yours is really nice and encourages me: I definitely should get one next year and I will find a way to have one.

[MrSeedy]

I wish I could send seeds, but it's always been a question to me , why mine don't seem to get any seeds on them, though there is sometimes a very odd structure resembling a seed pod sometimes. It's elongated and skinny on the part farthest from where it's attached to the vine, but baloons out at the bottom , like a small nob, which appears to have just two small seeds , one in each chamber of the pod.
I've never gotten them to germinate howeve, and I'm not completely sure those "seed pods" have even developed normally?? They are easy to start as cuttings !!!