Chalice Cup Vine

Solandra maxima. I received apx.5 seeds in trade earlier this year and have 3 seedlings now. Info sent with seeds says hardy in zones 9-10-11 but I could have sworn I googled info that said it's hardy here in zone 8.

Peggy

Peggy, this site shows it hardy to zone 8, BUT - most sites say 9b. I live in zone 8b/9a, and won't risk losing my vine by experimenting! LOL I'd root a cutting and plant it in a protected spot to see how it does for you. Ya never know - it might do great!

Well,I have 3 seedlings,I'll bring them inside to the light bench this year and next year plant one out to see how it fairs in our winter.

Keep us posted if you decide to plant one in the ground.

Will do

P

Just saw this thread .. I have a Solandra maxima in the ground and am keeping my fingers crossed it will return .. I'll keep you posted ... its' been in the ground all summer so it's probably has a decent root system which will be important .. We haven't had any freezes yet and I'm debating whether or not to mulch after the first frost .. what do y'all think? mulch or let it fend for itself. It's about 3 feet tall.

X

If it were ME, I wouldn't chance it, but IF I did, I would mulch it with straw, put a bushel basket over it and cover the whole basket with a blanket, anchored with bricks. I'd raise the south side of the basket with a brick to assure good air circulation. I live in NW Florida, zone 8b/9a and mine is in the garage.

I've got a few spares in the greenhouse just in case.

X

Shoot! I keep forgetting to bring a couple of mine in to the light bench. On my "to do" list for today.

X,both of the rooted cuttings you sent me are doing great.

Over the years I have found these guys to be pretty much carefree.

Here is a picture of the one that's in the ground.

X

Bigred

DG member Tropicbreeze said it well. Plants ignore zones, they are a guide line with a lot of flexibility. I grow stuff here that I'm told "doesn't grow there".

Having said that, the garden did take a hit with this freak snow and freeze yesterday, but it was mostly cosmetic, everything will recover. Still, it's an opportunity for me to re-design and trim stuff, which for some reason I am loathe to do! That trimming will include yards of chalice vine, so if your seeds are not working out, I would rather send some of the vine to a wanted home rather than the mulch bin! I will tell you, that I work in plant time, sometimes I'm quick and sometimes not..just dmail me though because the trimming will start probably next weekend sometime.

Rj

This message was edited Dec 5, 2009 8:37 PM

I did finally bring two into the light bench and left one out in the cold greenhouse to see how it would hold up. Been too cold lately to go check on it.

Rj,
we were suppose to get snow flurries but if we did,they were so light that nothing stuck.On the downside....I didn't get my cannas cut back and now I have mushy cannas to whack down...ICK!

Here in zone 9-b/10a we were hit hard by the frost. Both the canopy (leaves) were frozen and half of the vine stems. The plants were on the bay, 8 ft high and 15 ft wide.

If mine that is in the ground comes back it will be a miracle. We've had nothing but lows in the lower 20's for weeks at a time and then of course we got 6 inches of snow Friday and Saturday night. The exposed branches are toast of course. If it does come back I'll certainly let everyone know.

This has been a record cold and wet winter for us and root rot is going to be a real problem. I'm just glad I always take cuttings of everything and keep them in the greenhouse but this year I've actually lost a lot of extra-tropicals in there. I hold very little hope for the canna and ginger outside in the ground.

X

We've had several nights of teen tempts and recently snow since I last posted. The one in the greenhouse looks like toast but the ones inside are doing great.

You can always grow it in 5 gallon pot and keep it pruned back to form small tree. I do that with mine because if I plant them in the ground they take over the yard! They took a beating when we had a freeze but they are coming back. Then again our freeze only lasts a couple of hours...not days or weeks :o) The joys of living in zone 9b!!!

~ Cat

Mine is dead.

I lost several of them.

Mine in the ground isn't coming back .. but I always take insurance cuttings in the fall so I have one in the greenhouse.

Yeah, I took a cutting too. Although I winced from a memory of chopping down yards of the vine last year and just threw them out.

Mine survived on the light bench. They've been back outside since the beginning of April. Haven't grown much but night tempts are still going up and down and they probably need to be repotted.