Your A tomentosa should get to be fairly large. People on the forum recommend feeding with composted chicken manure. I have fed close to 500 cats on one 5 year old tomentosa vine. But, that vine was HUGE! And, I'm sorry to say that vine doesn't exist anymore--the people who bought our other house ripped it out.

I have my snakeroot in an area that gets dappled sunlight. The soil is rich with humus from leaf litter. It is growing like crazy. I also have mulch around it in the heat of the summer. Last year I mulched it with shredded newspaper, as I didn't have anything else, and that worked great. I bought some more roots from Rod at Loess Roots this spring. He always gives you a good deal. And his roots are really healthy. I also got free seeds from him last fall, and I have about 10 small plants in pots. I will never have enough to feed the PVs on just snakeroot, but I have my tomentosa plants (2) and one macrophyla in the same bed with the snakeroot. I can move cats from the snakeroot to the others as needed.

From my experience, the aristolochias are easy to grow once you get them established. Germination and getting them established have been the tricky parts for me. Best times to plant are spring after they have begun actively growing again or fall, when they go dormant. Seeds should always be sown in the fall when they are fresh.

Sandy