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Rhodochiton atrosanguineum

I  have grown it but not in recent years, it's perennial but not hardy. It's not a difficult as far as I can remember

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  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546

    I've got one. I grew several plants up an obelisk made of those twirly wire poles and they were lovely. That was two years ago. I kept them in the greenhouse and some of them overwintered, (along with a calendula that was growing in the same pot and that also showed aspirations to climb and got nearly half way up!) After a second winter only one was left and the brave marigold had succumbed. It didn't look much and my greenhouse was stuffed with other things all in need of urgent attention, so it got none apart from an occasional splash of water. While I wasn't looking  it snuck off the obelisk and sneakily climbed the wall trellis behind its pot. When it reached the roof it put out loads more foliage (the bottom of the stems are still almost bare) and it has flowered all summer. It looks really pretty hanging down and you can see the flowers well. When the flowers drop off the purple calyces remain for a long time and continue the display.

    In the autumn I will try to bring it to heel and re-arrange the wall climbers and refresh the compost in the pot. My greenhouse isn't heated beyond keeping it frost free - last year was mild  so I hardly needed the heater at all and it went down to zero but no lower. In a bad winter we can easily get -10 or -12C here, sometimes for a long time. One year was so cold the holly tree was deciduous!                                                      

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