mandevilla

Its that time of year again! I put 2 mandevillas on either side of the swing set. They have wound around it and there are very many long tendrils, some as long as 3'. They are bare of leaves, but now is the hard part, having to decide how to cut. Each tendril has many others wound around them, too! So, either I try to fit the entire swing set into the house or cut all these lovely arms off! How much cutting must I do? (or do I sit in front of the tv on a swing set?)

Sounds good to me, sit on swing set and watch TV. Very relaxing.

I try to leave about 3 feet of stems coming from the pot. That way if some dies back, you won't lost the whole pot. I have a friend that just chops off the top, takes out of the pot and stores the fat tubers like dahlia or cannas.

Can they be stored like that? It would really solve the problem , if I could be sure they wouldn't die on me.
Hibiscus, it does sound relaxing, doesn't it. the plants move back and forth when you swing outdoors, if you don't
mind the arms waving in your face!
I stored them in the basement last winter and come spring, the plants begged to differ with me because they each insisted on taking a curtain on a rod outdoors with them!
(a few arms got chopped for that bit of defience!)

DJM, I don't know, she said it works for her, I'm gonna try one this winter. She puts her bulbs and tubers under her house like a lot of folks in our area do.

Cala, do you think the garage would be cold enough for them to go dormant?

DJM, my garage is cold enough. It doesn't freeze, but gets pretty cold.

Thanks ladies, you asked and answered my questions.

"eyes"