Violet Allamanda

I live in the province of Chiriqui in the country of Panama. This tropical vine is commonly planted here at both lower and higher elevati...Read Moreons and can be purchased at local nurseries. I live at 1400 meters in elevation where it grows a little slower than at sea level because the weather here is cool. It was slow getting started but now it has become quite large and covers part of the carport roof and the entranceway. It has beautiful big dark pink flowers and here in our climate is in bloom 365 days per year. At any one time it has at least a couple dozen blooms on it. It makes quite a show and is one of the first things you notice as you approach my home. I suppose you would say where I live is zone 11 and down near sea level is zone 12. I had to make a trellis for it to support it and temporarily tie it to the trellis. I have seen it growing in the open without support where it takes a shrub-like form but it looks better on a trellis. Once it reaches a certain size it does not take much care. It has an interesting rather large prickly green seedpod but most of the flowers don't form a seedpod. Where I live we have a very long rainy season with maybe 200 inches of rain a year. I don't water much it but in a dryer climate you might have to. I don't know if it would take any frost as it never gets below freezing here. To me it is one of the nicest flowering vines you can grow in this area.

Remember that many of the catepillars you are seeing are the young of the many beautiful butterflies you enjoy in your yard. I know it i...Read Mores frustrating when they eat all the leaves but most host plants have evolved for this and will come back into leaf fairly quickly.

Blooms profusely spring till fall, very hardy in our heat of south Texas. Receives the most praise from visitors to my garden.
I ...Read Morehave three plants that are 4 years old, this last fall before putting them in my greenhouse in october, I noticed there were spike covered large oval pods on two plants. I cut one off and left the other on the plant. The one left on the plant just recently turned brown and popped open this week to expose about 14 seeds. I would like to know how to plant these seeds and if others have experienced the same thing with their Allamanda's. I have not been able to find out anything from local nursaries or books.

This is still a not very popular Allamanda, although it grows more vigorously than its cousin Allamanda cathartica. The dark red flowers ...Read Morehighlights it from the other Allamandas, for sure, and could as well used in landscaping combinations with them.

As other Allamandas, its sap is poisonous to kids and pets, but it doesn´t prevent catterpillars and aphids to infest it from time to time.