Mid-Atlantic Gardening: FIRST FLOWERS OF SUMMER 2015, 1 by Gitagal

Gitagal wrote:
Cam--

Build an Arbor--any kind--buy 2 Mandevillas in the spring ($20+ each)--
make sure it is the rough, leathery leafed one--(see pic. #2 above)
NOT the one with the red flowers. They come in big pots with a short (2'+)
trellis already in there, on which it is already climbing--and plant it in a bigger pot
at the base of your chosen trellis (or arbor) and it will do the rest....
NO bugs! NO diseases! NO care needed...

It is a very fast grower and will twine around anything--(like cucumbers) an just
keep blooming and blooming....
Mine grows on an 8' ladder-like trellis that I built. When it reaches the top, it keeps growing
with all the tendrils now hanging down on itself--still blooming away...

It is an annual--so you have to buy a new one every year. PLUS--you have to
unwind and tear down the previous year's, now dried up, vines. THAT takes a bit of doing...
but it is totally worth the $20 I spend each year on one.

1--Here is a long view of it--I plant it in the same pot every year, after i dig out the old one.

2--This shows the long tendrils searching for something to twine around on.