Mandevilla Laxa - Seed pods?

Hi All,

I actually have two questions. The first is about the seed pods and the second is about watering and leaves.....

1) I'm getting plenty of long skinny seed pods on my Mandevilla Laxa and I'm wondering what to do with them. If I decide to plant them, how do I proceed at this point?...let them drop on their own? Do I have to open up the pods to get to the seeds? Etc...

2) I'm noticing some yellow leaves here and there - does this mean too much water or does this simply mean that we're nearing the end of summer (although the temp usually doesn't drop for another couple of months around here)?

Thank you!

Wow! I have several mandevillle vines and i have not seen any seed pods. What color do you have. From what i read they grow from cuttings?? Fran

happy_girl--you will need to open the pods to get to the seeds. I've never seen the seed pods so can't give you too much advice, you should generally leave them on the plant until they're ripe, for many plants the pods go from green to brown and then you can pull them off, but I'm not sure about this plant. I would recommend harvesting the seeds and starting them yourself rather than just letting them drop--I think they need a little more help than that to get started so if you just let them drop you may end up with nothing. As far as the yellow leaves, it could be overwatering but not necessarily, I would stick your finger down a few inches into the dirt the next time you would have normally watered and if it feels damp then don't.

Fran--do you have M. laxa or one of the other Mandevilla varieties, cultivars like Alice Dupont, Red Riding Hood, etc? M. laxa will make seed pods, but the hybrid cultivars generally don't, at least not that I've seen. And even if they did, they wouldn't come true from seed so you're better off to do cuttings.

Thanks so much AGAIN! I can't believe how long the seed pods get. I will be patient and wait for them to drop off naturally then I'll open them up and take out the seeds and figure out where to plant them. I would assume I should plant them around March?

By the way eCrane, looks like the gardenia has mostly brown leaves now but there are still some small green ones. I am still keeping a close watch on her and hoping for the best.

Thank you.

I would keep an eye on the seed pods--sometimes if you leave them on until they fall off on their own, they'll split open and dump the seeds. So if they're starting to look dried up, you can probably go ahead and pull them off. As far as planting time, if you have a way to start them indoors in the fall/winter that's probably the best...actually I guess you're in a warm enough zone where you could start them outdoors then too! Since they won't get hit by frost or anything I would probably start them in the fall, that give them time to grow more and get bigger by next summer, may still not bloom their first year but it still gives you a head start. (I'll keep my fingers crossed for your gardenia! As long as it's got some green there's hope!)

Hi ecrane3,
I keep looking at my mandevilla laxa and there are even more seed pods. Looks like I only have a few clusters of white flowers left but I have many receptacles (right term?) that have seed pods growing out of them. I can't get over how long these get! I will make sure not to let them fall as I want to make sure they grow where I'd like them to be located.

Still can't tell about the gardenia. Lots of brown leaves but still bits of green here and there.

By the way, I had to look up Dublin on the map. I also glanced at your weather wondering if you were cooler or warmer than us down here. I see high 80's for the 10 day forecast. That's my kind of weather. We've been at about 78 to 80 down here. People still complain and I tell them to pretend they're in Hawaii!

I have a feeling we get warmer than you in the summer and colder in the winter--I'm guessing you're very close to the ocean and I'm far enough inland that we can get 100 degrees plus sometimes in the summer, and do get light frost a few times every winter. Mostly our weather's pretty nice lately, mid to high 80's most of the time (except that big heat wave in July--then we were hitting 110-112)

I dont know what type I have. I got them at Homedepot and Lowes. I start new plants by rooting them but they are really had to do. Fran

I'm guessing you have one of the regular hybrid Mandevilla's, I don't think I've ever seen M. laxa at HD or Lowes, the other ones are much more common. I've never tried rooting them myself so I'm not sure if it's supposed to be hard or not.

Hi Fran,

I agree with ecrane3, I bought my Alice Du Pont and Red Riding Hood Mandevilla vines from Home Depot but they've never carried the Mandevilla Laxa.

In the middle of spring, I went to a nursery across the street from where I work and asked if they had them and they didn't, however, about a month 1/2 later, I wandered over there to browse and there they were!

If you do a general search on Mandevilla Laxa (on this site), you'll see photos of not only the flowers, but the seed pods as well.

Ecrane3 - yes, we're about a 1/2 mile from the ocean so we tend to see the "marine layer" every now and then in the mornings but today was a brilliant sunny blue sky kind of day.

By the way - I trimmed off the last of the yellow leaves on the gardenia and there are tiny leaf buds that look green to me so I'm still praying all will be well.

Fran--I guess the obvious question that I should have asked you before is what color are the flowers on your Mandevilla. If they're not white, then it's not M. laxa. If they are white, then sniff them and see if they're fragrant, if they're not then they're regular Mandevilla. But if they're white and fragrant, then you may have M. laxa (although, as we've said above, HD and Lowes don't generally carry it, so I'd be surprised...but I've picked up a few treasures from them here and there, so never say never!)

Hi ecrane3 - I have another question about the Mandevilla (Alice du Pont and Red Riding Hood). I notice that the aphids really go after the tiny buds. I've been spraying all the buds with a mixture of dish soap (about a teaspoon) with water. I have to do it pretty frequently otherwise I find brown buds on the ground. I always thought aphids were green but I've now seen red ones as well. Is there anything else that you can suggest to get rid of these tiny monsters?

Thanks,
Nancy

Aphids come in all different colors! I've seen green, orange, and blackish ones on my plants. Funny thing is that I have a Kona hibiscus that keeps getting them, but it's right next to my Alice DuPont and they seem to like the hibiscus much better, haven't bothered the mandevilla at all or my Allamanda that is also sitting right there. Honestly, all I do is the soap spray or sometimes just a blast from the hose without the soap, I've never had an infestation that was bad enough that I had to resort to anything else. I've been able to control mine by blasting them off with the hose or doing the soap spray maybe every 2-3 weeks. You could post over on Garden Foes (or just browse around over there) and probably find a number of other suggestions.

Happy_girl, when I first started with the m. laxa, I was given a long green seedpod in the Fall and told to just set it in a jar and leave it alone until it turned brown and crispy. It took most of the winter, but come spring, I cracked that long old pod open and got out the seeds that look a little like the dark end of the marigold seed and with cream colored fringe on them like dandelion fluff. Probably to enable them to get carried away in the wind. I doubt they would fall under your existing plant because of this.
My vine has been here for a couple of years now, producing the lovely long pods, and it does not really go dormant unless we have a hard winter. Yours may not even go dormant since you are in zone 10b.
Do you like the smell? I am undecided. LOL Sometimes I smell it and its not too bad, other times it kind of repels me. Not sure why. But I asked my DD and DH and they both said it stinks to them. Go figure, huh?
I had DD run out and lay it her arm so you could see what my pods look like. They are wild crazy long! LOL

Hi PudgyMudpies!

Yes, those seed pods just crack me up every time I see them. They grow so fast too. I used to have those beautiful white flowers cascading over my railing upstairs and now the seed pods are cascading! It's interesting that the seed pods come right out of the empty flower base (can't think of the right term for that part).

As for the fragrance, I find it to be like gardenia but very, very subtle. I don't notice the smell unless I place my nose next to the flower. I guess that's why I bought the gardenia. Stronger fragrance and a beautiful rich double flower. That's funny that both your DD & DH don't care for the laxa fragrance. I don't think my DH notices it at all.

The fragrance that really tickled my fancy in spring was freesia. I had four pots of them in different colors and I'd take a break from work, sit out on the deck and read while breathing in that beautiful sweet smell. Nothing like it!

Thanks for the photo and the info about the seed pods. How many of the seeds did you plant at first? How deep did you plant them?

Best Regards

gosh, I don't remember how many I planted, but I do remember that they started easily. I just laid them on the surface and lightly covered them. I had the rest in a zip bag for the longest time and I think someone at last Roundup took them off my hands.
You have to get right up into mine to smell them too. No wafting fragrance. LOL I LOVE the smell of the gardenia though, what a classic. The freesias are wonderful, aren't they? Have you grown Hyacinths? Another super fragrant Spring bloomer along with Narcissus. yum. :~)

Hi PudgyMudpies,

I'm noticing that my mandevilla laxa seems to be starting to shed more leaves and there are only a few flowers left. What do you normally do to yours when summer is over? Do you trim it way back? I'm thinking about doing that after the seed pods have "browned" but I'm not sure if there is an appropriate time to do this.

Any suggestions?

Since I'm new to gardening, I'm wondering if there are any fragrant plants I can put in my garden during winter. I went to a nursery on Tuesday and he said there really aren't many plants that even flower in the winter unless you fool them. Hmm... I hope that's not true.

Thanks!

There are some plants that will bloom in winter--two that I have are Bouvardia longiflora (available from Logees) and Brunfelsia jamaicensis (got it from either Logees, Kartuz, or Top Tropicals). I can't remember exactly when these guys started blooming for me, but I know it was over the winter, I think the Bouvardia bloomed a little earlier, and the Brunfelsia it was getting closer toward late winter. Both of these I kept in my pseudo-greenhouse (covered patio wrapped with greenhouse plastic), although they may do fine unprotected in your climate. Another unexpected star for me was Nemesia 'Compact White Innocence' (planted in the garden). It bloomed for me for 12 straight months, straight through the winter, and I thought it had a nice fragrance, although it's not like a gardenia or anything. I mention that cultivar specifically because I had many other Nemesia's too and they didn't bloom nearly as long and I didn't notice the scent as much. Jasminum x stephanense is also a late winter bloomer and smells lovely.

I don't do anything to mine. I just leave it alone and it does its own thing. I noticed the same thing about mine when I was out taking that picture, that it was looking a bit bare.
That jasmine that ecrane mentions sounds lovely, I am going to look for that. I don't know about the fragrant or blooming in the dead of winter, but I do know that one of my first ones back to blooming is the Jasmine Polyanthum or winter jasmine http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1639/index.html and it is readily available, at least around here it is, and it is one of my favorites. Only drawback is, it only blooms in March & April and then its done until the next year. But it is evergreen, very tough and very forgiving, so I would recommend it if you have a good sized area that you want a vine. Check your local Lowes or Home Depot. And personally, for the fragrance it puts out all over the whole yard, I can live with the limitations.
Other then that, maybe bulbs of narcissis or hyacinth for some Spring fragrance? They don't wait for spring here, and with you being a zone higher then us, you should have them blooming really early too. What do you think, ecrane?

I had forgotten about J. polyanthum, I think it'll bloom at about the same time as J. x stephanense, and they both smell great so I say get whichever one you find first! (polyanthum is more widely available at nurseries, stephanense is a little less common but is available mail order at least). I don't do too much with bulbs, but if you plant some of the spring bloomers now, I've been able to get stuff to bloom in late winter. Freesia's one of my favorites!

I bought a white one recently but i think its a dracena. have not sniffed it yet. haha. I will tho and let you know. Fran

Ecrane3 and PudgyMudpies - Thanks so much for generously sharing your plant info with me! I'm going to look up these plants and then see where I can find them around here. I'm not familiar with Logees or Kartuz. I'll check out Home Depot as well.

Ok - I couldn't help myself - after a bit of searching for some of these plants on the internet, I'm now on a wait list (rare flora) for the Gardenia Four Seasons, the Jasminum Sambac - Duke of Tuscany (Kartuz) as well as the Brunfelsia jamaicensis (Kartuz). Oh boy!! I just hope that the price of the plant plus shipping doesn't break the bank!

The sun is out so I'm going to head outside for a walk. Thanks again!

Logee's and Kartuz both sell very small plants (2.5" pots usually) so shipping's not terrible, and while the prices may seem high for the size of the plant, they're not really that bad. I don't know if I should tempt you further, but Top Tropicals is also a nice source of tropical pretty smelling things...they sell larger plants so the prices are correspondingly higher, but they have an ever changing huge selection of stuff. They also have an end of season sale going on right now where you can get some pretty good discounts on some of their stuff. They most likely have the J. sambac and the gardenia if you don't feel like waiting, but the prices will be a bit higher than Logee's/Kartuz because of the size of the plant.

If I were you though, I'd check local nurseries for the gardenia--that's a pretty common cultivar up here, I think I see it at pretty much every local nursery I go to. And I'm still seeing J. sambac at Lowe's and Home Depot, so if you want to land yourself a cheap one I'd definitely check there. The brunfelsia I think you're stuck with mail order though.

Hi Ecrane3,

I've browsed Top Tropicals website and thought it was superb but the shipping costs seemed really high to me :-( however......I went to Logees and ordered:

- Mandevilla sanderi 'My Fair Lady'
- Dombeya 'Seminole' (Dwarf Dombeya)
and
- Gardenia 'Four Seasons'

:-)

I was also tempted to get the Michelia Figo which I've had my eye on for a while. Of course I felt like I was in a candy store with so many things I wanted and not enough mulah. I have to be conservative right now as we have a pet pigeon (we rescued her and another one a year later) - who is dealing with egg yolk peritonitis. So far, with xrays, meds (injections twice daily), checkups, centesis drains, etc. I've been watching our pennies. We've spent about about $1600. Our wonderful vet is trying to avoid doing surgery which can be very scary as some birds do not do well with anesthesia...especially if they are sick to begin with. She seems to be doing a lot better this last week and I hope it continues. At one point he had us stop the twice daily injections and she backslid so now we think we're on track and gaining a bit of ground especially after the last centisis where he drained quite a bit of gunk out of her.

Sorry - I got off the topic there. In any event, I'm enjoying my new status as junior gardener. This is good exercise for when I finally start planning my front yard but we'll have to get a garden wall built and the yard levelled so that means waiting until next year.

Oh - I know what I was going to ask about...it was about the Jasminum Sambac.
There are two varieties that I noted. 1) J. Sambac - 'Belle of India' and 2) J. Sambac - 'Duke of Tuscany'. Do you have any experience with either?

It seems as if the Duke of Tuscany has lots more petals (which I love - sort of reminds me of an old fashioned petticoat) but I also wrote down (from some website which I can't recall) that the Belle of India is actually Pikake J. Sambac. Do you know about these two varieties?

Take care and have a good week!
Nancy

Nancy,

Hope your bird is doing OK! To answer your questions...there are about a thousand different varieties of J. sambac (OK, maybe not quite that many...but a lot!), some have single flowers, some have double, the one I have I bought at Home Depot so I honestly don't know which variety it is, and one that I had at my old house was different than the one I had now, but I got it from a community college plant sale and it too was just labelled as J. sambac. The one I had at my old house had bigger flowers and smelled prettier--wish I knew which one it was! If you want advice on which cultivar is best, you might start a new thread, I'm sure there are a number of people on the forum who've had experience with a couple of them but they might not be reading this thread since it started off being about Mandevilla's.

Oh--and the reason why Top Tropicals shipping seems high is that they're shipping large plants in ~1 gal containers many times, vs Logees/Kartuz who are shipping 2.5" pots. So it's not really high for what you're getting, but if you don't mind starting with small plants and taking longer for them to get big, then Logees is a better bet.

I found a location that sells all kinds of tropical seeds. I was looking for a blue bromiliad and happened on it. It is called Tropical Seeds and it sells everything! have any of you ever grown the shell vine plant? I want to know if you can keep the shell plant and the madevilla(chilean jasamine in a greenhouse over the winter? Maybe if I cut them back. Mine have no seed pods because they never bloomed. I think I got them out too late for the weather here. It's right below Charlotte,NC z7

I made the decision to cut my Mandevilla Laxa way back. I've stored the seed pods in a brown paper sack. I already see little shoots coming out so that's a good sign.

I had a wonderful surprise today when I got home. There was a box from Logees sitting on my porch. I opened up the box and there were my three plants I had ordered. They are the cat's meow! I've already repotted them and they look extremely healthy after their journey.

I'm looking forward to seeing them bloom.

Congrats! I hope they thrive for you. :~)

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blugld
Fort Mill, SC
Zone 7b
Oct 4, 2006
1:53 PM

Edit

Does anyone know anything about wintering this ?It hasn't bloomed but I think I got it out too late. It also doesn't get as much sun as I think it is supposed to. I wish it did have time to bloom .I heard the fragrance is wonderful. I have it in 2 18-20" flower boxes along the bottom of the trellis that covers the end of my deck. I thought it would smell really good when I was out there. How can I keep it so I can smell those little white blooms next summer. I would take a picture but I really don't know how to scan them and get a picture on line. I'm from the old school,I'm afraid and I haven't quite mastered that step yet

This message was edited Oct 4, 2006 1:57 PM

I leave mine out and it comes back on its own, but I am in a couple zones up from you. I think zone 8 is about as low as it can be left out in. You will probably have to bring the pot into the garage or something. I am not thrilled with the smell myself, I had heard it was really fragrant and just had to have it, but I am rather disappointed with the fact I need to stick my nose in the flower to smell it and it is not a fragrance that grabs me. I would not be at all upset if mine froze out. LOL

Update on the mandevilla laxa - since cutting them waaaaaayyyyyy back near the end of September, they have grown at least 2-1/2 to 3 feet already! I've also had to replace both of the Mandevilla Tango Twirls that I bought as I was very disappointed with the brown buds falling off constantly.

Since I've not gardened in the winter before, can anyone tell me what happens to the Alice du pont mandevilla? I see that I still have flowers on them but wondered if the leaves will turn yellow or the flowers will stop eventually.

On another note, I ordered more plants from Logees and got the Brunfelsia jamaicensis, Gelsemium sempervirens and the Michelia Figo. I have to say that I get such a thrill when I remove all the packaging and see my little 2.5" potted plants!

Best Regards everyone,
Nancy

In your zone I'm not sure much will happen to your Alice Dupont...it will likely stop flowering during the winter, but they are hardy in your zone so I wouldn't expect too much else, maybe a little leaf drop if you have a cold snap but probably not too much else.