Mandavilla have tubers????

Some people in my area have had these come through the winter here by heavy mulching. I have 3 plants, 2 that I am bringing in and 1 that I am going to leave out.
When I dug it up to bring it in, I was shocked to find out that it has tubers.
In the picture you can see the tubers that stayed with the plant, and the ones on the right that came out separate...

Now for the question... Will the loose tubers grow new vines? How do I store these over winter? Do I plant them? Dry them? Or are they worthless?

thanks,
chris

wow... I had no idea they had tubers. Having said that you would think they must preform some fuction to regenerate itself. I really like the mandvilla's but have hesitated because I don''t have any more room to bring them indoors. If they would go dormant in a pot in a cool greenhouse then that would work. With tubers like that they just might.
Can't wait to hear what the pro's have to say.

Bea

No ideas on this Chris but I am anxious to see what everyone has to say. Which Mandavilla do you have?

Wow, Chris, I had no idea they made tubers. A Google search turned up very little info about this plant growing from tubers. Most just mentioned keeping them as a house plant over winter or treating them as annuals. In this area, mandevilla plants go for $20.00-30.00 in the spring in gallon pots. Maybe this is how they keep the price high -- you have to buy new ones every year. LOL. I've been wanting some mandevillas, but at that price I can't afford for them to be annuals. Now, that I know about the tubers, I'll get some, too.

Personally, I can't imagine that a tuber wouldn't grow a new plant. So, if it were me, I would keep the ones you have dug up in pots over winter, heavily mulch the one you leave out (mark the place as they appear to be very late growers), and store the loose tubers over winter for replanting in the spring.

I did find this info on the Carroll Gardens site about over wintering mandevillas:

"On the Mandevilla, there are 3 methods:

1. Store the root, like a Dahlia tuber in peat moss in a cool place over the winter. Pot in early March and start indoors before planting outdoors in late May.

2. Put the pot in a cool dark place and withhold water until early March. Then cut back and move to a warm brightly lit place. Grow as a houseplant until putting outside in late May.

3. Keep growing as a houseplant all winter in a warm sunny place. Trim lightly to shape now and more severely in mid-April. Caution: use systemic granules (Di-Syston), as mandevilla is very subject to white fly."



Karen

I never heard of it having tubers (all the ones that I've ever had have had plain old roots). I also never heard of one (except maybe the less common species Mandevilla laxa) surviving a winter in zone 7. So I wonder if there's a chance the plant is something else and not mandevilla?

First I will answer a few question.
I have no idea what kind they are, they were almost dead and marked down to $1. There regular price was 25 and that is too expensive for an annual for me also.
I have never seen a dug up Mandavilla so I thought and was hoping it had plain old roots also.

It was tagged Mandavilla and absolutely looks like one, so I am pretty sure it is. (picture in bloom before I cut back and brought them in) Does everyone agree?

I will see if anyone else is familiar with this kind.

I will store the loose tubers in Peat and see what happens in spring. I have potted one in soil and have it in the house and the other one I knocked most dirt off, put in bag and will keep in the garage. As you can see, I am hoping one of these things work.

Chris

Looks a lot Mandavilla Alice DuPont., I could be wrong about Alice but I sure would say it is a manda.


Wow and what a great price, don't you just love it when fall comes and they have these sales to move em on out.



Bea

Well, it sure looks like a Mandy! And Alice Dupont is a good guess, it's the most common one with flowers that color. Most of the ones I've had were younger and smaller, maybe the roots get like that as they get bigger. But I'm still surprised they would come back after a winter in zone 7, I'm in zone 9 and have lost some over the winter.

Good, at least we know it is a Mandy. ecrane, if you have had these die from winter by you then I am not putting much hope in my zone, but we will see.
I bought these in May. The markdown was 50% off of the $25 because they looked almost dead.(so were the Passiflora right next to them) The Manager was walking by and I told him that these should be in the sun because they are dying. He told me that he has to follow the Pikes Nursery rules and has to keep them by the house plants. I wasnt trying to buy them but when he made them all $1 each right in front of me, I couldnt resist. :)
I still love fall though when they have to "move em on out". Except this fall, the drought has made it very hard to keep the stuff alive that I already own, so there wont be many new things.

Thanks all,
chris

Isn't pikes in bankruptcy now?

OMG, really, I havent heard anything about it! I will look it up, that would be horrible. They are the only place to get instant gratification when I need a plant fix.

chris

Chris, the only way we can solve this mistery is for you to send me some of those tubers, I'll start growing them in the spring and report back in the summer whether or not they grew into Mandavillas or not.......Im willing to make the sacrifice for this experiment..... :)

pikes here in alabama was onn the news last nite. said they owe over 100 million dollars

Yes, Pikes is in bankruptcy. They are trying to restructure due to the drought. There are about 35 stores in NC, AL and GA. Hope it works.

Anaid, If these all grew I would have a major problem. I would love for some of you to "sacrifice" and send me a envelope and I will for sure send a handful to you. :)

Chris

chris, may i have one please?

For sure! My address is in exchange.

thank so much chis. i'll put address lable and postage inside envy

Great! This was a great idea, it didnt dawn on me to do this. Good thinking, Anaid.

chris

I will dig up my mandevilla to see if it has tubers also. I knew that they had seed pods, but not about the tubers. Here is a photo of the seed pods. It is an Alice DuPont.

Well, I did dig mine up and didn't find any tubers like above.
André

Andre, thanks for letting us know that yours doesnt have tubers. A couple of people have some of the tubers and we will let everyone know how they do. I am new to Mandavilla so I didnt know they had seed pods. I will pay much closer attention to them this growing season.

A lot of the time the hybrids like 'Alice Dupont' won't make seeds, I've never gotten any on mine. You might get some, but don't feel like you did something wrong if you don't end up with any. And the hybrids won't come true from seed, some may end up looking similar to the parent but some may be completely different.

Hi Chris,

I am new member to DG. The seed pods seemed to appear in the month of November on mine. I do not know if the cold weather is part of that appearance. I know that they are very to multiply by cuttings, I will definately wait to see what the tubers will do. Mine did bloom all summer until the end of November.
André

Hi ecrane3,

I will try the seeds when they will be ready. I am aware the hybrids do not come true from seeds, but the curiosity is there. I like this mandy and want more blooms next summer. I have bought the deep red and some yellow ones on EBay.

André

Welcome to DG Andre, I am sure you will love it here! Thanks for the info, I will keep an eye out for pods next year. The main big one that I cut down and brought into the house, now has 5 new vines about 2' long starting to wrap on small trellis. The one bare root in the garage has new growth buds starting. The loose tubers in soil show no signs of growth, yet. I havent checked the plant that I left outside recently but 2 weeks ago it still had live growth on the bottom.
Mine bloomed for a long time also, it was so beautiful, I hope these all survive for next year.

Do the ones you grow from cuttings bloom the same year for you, or do they take a couple of years to get big enough?

chris

Hi chris, It is the first year for me also. I have lots of cuttings that do have some growth on. I do believe they will bloom this year. I am suprised to see how fast they grow and a nice size also. For now, the cuttings are in water with orchid moss, some in water and some into the soil. The best way so far is in orchid moss and water naturally. I live in Blackshear, Are you close???

mapquest says you are 234 miles from me. I am 20 min. south of Atlanta airport. Fayette County.

If cuttings bloom from first year, I might do that next year. It would be easier than digging up the whole plant, and potting it for inside.

Sounds like you may be close to our spring round-up. You should go, you will meet many great DG people from here in GA and maybe a couple from FL.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/794350/

I was posting a reply, and didn't like the picture. I was telling you that It was possible for you to take all the cuttings you wish and grow them in water.

I will probably go to the Round-Up.
I was also working on a plan to build a gh for my step-daughter today. I finished mine a month ago, and find it small now.(22X19).

This message was edited Dec 28, 2007 1:11 AM

Your gh sounds wonderful. 22x19 doesnt sound small, wow you must have some great gardens! Show us pictures please.

No, I do not have a great garden, but had lots of plants to winterize. Wanted also to try lots of new plants. Here is the picture of the gh.

Chris/Karen

I have one thought on the tubers rooting and growing into new plants.

My guess is that they will not, as most tubers--to root--have to be somehow connected to the mother plant. The Dahlia is a good example of this. All the tubers that fall off when you dig up a dahlia will never grow. The "neck" of the tuber has to be attached to the old stem.

The advice you got from Carrol Gardens may just refer to the WHOLE tuberous root mass, not all the individual pieces. You could call them and ask for Allan. He is the owner and the "guru" of all things about gardening and is usually available in his store all day Sundays. .

I am not saying this is true or not true about a Mandavilla, but it seems that broken off tubers (like in your picture) are just not viable.

I had a Mandavilla this year also--first time. Mine is sitting in my cool, dark basement in a 2 gallon pot. I cut it back to about 2' and dug it up from the big patio pot it was in. It came up easily and I did not see any tubers either.

Gita

That is a great gh andre. I wish I had the room for one.

Gita, thanks for the info, I guess it was worth a shot to see if I could have many more mandavilla at such a cheap price. I will still hope for the best, but it doesnt sound promising.
Is still weird that no-one elses mandy have tubers. I will probably lift a few out of their pots at HD and Pikes this spring, to see if they have roots or tubers.

chris

Are you positive they're mandevilla? You mentioned way back in the first post that some of your neighbors had these overwinter outdoors if they mulched, and I find it very surprising that a mandevilla would make it through a winter in zone 7 even with mulch, and then you add in the fact that nobody else's mandies have tubers, so it makes me wonder whether this isn't some other plant?

Any guesses what else it could be, ecrane????
WHAT makes tubers like that?

As I look back through the thread, I do see that Chris posted a pic of it in bloom and it does look like a mandevilla there. So I'm not sure what's going on, the hardiness and the tubers are very strange but unless there was some mixup and there's another plant that was in that same area that has tubers I guess we have to assume it's a mandevilla. It could be that they only form tubers as they get older, so maybe most of the people who posted here have younger plants that haven't formed them yet. Still doesn't explain how it could make it through a winter in zone 7 when I've had them die in zone 9 though!

Well, it may well be location....location. If planted near the foundation of a house, there is warmth from all the concrete that absorbs the sunlight all day long.

As an experiment, I planted 2 amaryllis bulbs in a South facing bed about 2' from the house and pretty protected. It has now survived 2 winters and has bloomed the last 2 Summers as well. Of course, we hardly had a winter in 2006-2007!
These, also, are not considered winter hardy in my zone 7. I tried it because a man I work with was telling me how he had a clump of Amaryllis by his front steps that was blooming it's head off. So, I thought i would try. I had about 7 pots, so if I would have lost the 2 I planted--no big deal!

Never know.........Gita

There was nothing else near the Mandy that it could have gotten mixed up. The neighbors that have said they have them and they have survived, I have not seen them myself, so I am not sure if they are correct. I have one that I left outside, it still has a little green growth on it, so it is not dead yet. We do have our coldest month still ahead of us. Even if it makes it through, I wouldnt call it hardy, I would call it a miracle from what I have heard about its needs.

The one that is still outside is no where near the foundation of my house.

Hi chris,

Thanks. I enjoy that gh. The picture you showed us is quite explicit. Don't trash it...Youmight be the only one to have such a plant. Laughing about pulling some out at HD and Pikes.