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mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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Posted by weedsmakemecrazy zone 5/6 (My Page) on Thu, Aug 2, 07 at 13:03
My deck containers were lacking color, so though it's late in the season and they weren't on sale, I splurged and bought several mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus to jazz up the deck. Does anyone have any tips on keeping these plants inside in the winter? Can it be done? Or should I just enjoy them now and hope my husband doesn't find out how much I spent to enjoy a month of blooms :)
Thanks for your advice!
Kathy |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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| Hi Kathy, I do keep a tropical hibiscus indoors every winter. It doesn't flower at my house, because I don't have a South facing window, which it would love. It stays in a west facing window and does okay. I suppose some supplemental light would help too, if you want flowers. It doesn't give me any trouble. I treat it like the rest of my houseplants. No experience with mandevilla. Your deck sounds pretty! Good luck. :-) pm2 |
RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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We also have Mandevilla and Trop.Hibs. You can keep the Man.vines over winter. They will look like crap and drop all leaves but they will survive the winter. The Trop.Hibs. we just treat like annuals. We have had no success with them lasting till the warm weather.
Bring the M.vine indoors once the cool weather comes on. We prune the branches down to a manageable size. Place it in a sunny window with a sheer panel over the window. Not direct sunlight. We water maybe 2 times a month and no feeding at all. All the leaves will drop and it will look like it has died. When the warmer weather starts we start to condition the plant outside. Place it in a mostly shady spot, gradually increasing the sun exposure daily. We have had our Man.Vine for about 3 years now. Good luck with yours! NancyLouise |
RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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| Just wanted to clarify that I have kept the same Hibiscus going for about 10 years. It was a supermarket buy called 'Sahara Wind' and is in a very large pot now and has blooms on it today. It sits on a rolling caddy in front of a West window about 2-3ft from it all winter. |
RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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| I have hibiscus that comes back every year. Someone else was asking me about their hibiscus trees... to plant them in the yard or take them in. Is there any way for me to tell what they have so I know how hardy they are? |
RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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| Gee, can't really answer your question. I do have hardy hibiscus that I started from seed, so that is how I knew it was hardy. Where did they get their hibiscus trees [?] Are they potted hibiscus that are standards? Not sure what you mean. You could post a separate thread with your question and maybe get more responses? :-)
pm2 |
RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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| These hibiscus are potted with long slender trunks and a poodle poof ;-) of the vegetation on top. I think they got them... you know where. :-0 |
RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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| I think if they have the Latin name for them on a label that came with the plant, they would be able to easily look them up online and find out all the cultural information they need for them. If they didn't get a tag, they should call the store back and ask them to identify them. Hope that helps. :-) |
RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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Hey - thanks for all your advice!
I am going to try and save my plants and vines - sadly though my house isn't very sunny - the sunniest part is the 3-season sunroom, so that won't work, but I'll give it my best shot and let you all know!
Wow - a hibiscus for 10 years - that gives me hope!
Kathy |
RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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| Kathy, the 3 season sunroom, if you do bring the hibiscus into the house, you could put it on that porch at least until it got too cold. Then put it out there as soon as it was warm enough. They are beautiful plants and good luck with yours. Maybe you will have a photo? |
RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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| Brought my big box store tropical hibiscus in last winter and it lost a lot of leaves and looked like hell when I put it back out. The side that was away from what little light it got leaves withered and died (sunburn?), but came back eventually and it was spectacular. I will try to be better about rotating and watering it this winter. I would like to know when I should prune it back to its original shape? It was originally a ball atop three trucks (stems). |
RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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- Posted by jwutzke AZ: 9 [Sunset 13]; V (My Page) on
Fri, Oct 16, 09 at 9:35
| On the one hand these plants are more rugged than you might expect - here in Phoenix for instance it regularly gets down into the 30s in the winter (at night) and both plants survive that. On the other hand, both these plants are also very touchy in general, even here in Phoenix both I and my gardening neighbors have only intermittent success with tropical hibiscus, and mandeville either seems to take off like crazy, or die as soon as you take it away from the nursery. In fact I've sworn off mandeville, it's just a waste of money for me. I will concur that you don't want to over-water if they're indoors in the winters; a lot of people think "tropical" means "wet", but a lot of the tropics are actually quite dry. Have any of you tried putting a mirror behind the plant (i.e., so it's window-plant-mirror) so as to reflect light back onto the plant? |
RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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| I was just debating about whether to bring my mandevilla in, or let it go (though given that it was SNOWING this morning, I need to decide soon!). I bought it in 2008 and it bloomed like crazy all summer. I brought it in to work last fall and it did reasonably well in a big north-facing window--no blooms and it got leggy, but stayed healthy. I pruned it a bit and brought it back outside in late spring and it just sat there, no blooms at all until August. Since then it's been blooming very well, but with lots of leaves turning yellow and dropping off. I'm not sure I want to go through the whole process again for a $25 plant, to be honest. |
RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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- Posted by jwutzke AZ 9 [Snst 13]/ VT 5 (My Page) on
Sat, Oct 17, 09 at 23:03
| And that's exactly the sort of thing that happens even here in a warm climate, my mandevilla will grow pleasantly for a while and I think "oh boy, I finally got 'em figured out", and then as you say it just kind of stops, leaves turn yellow, and it dies. And nothing has changed over that time, except whatever's going on in the plant's li'l ol brain -- same lighting, same watering, etc. Very frustrating, which is why I gave up on them. Next summer y'all should try snail vine (vigna caracalla or phaseolus caracalla), assuming it's not an invasive risk in New England (which I assume it's not since it's very frost sensitive) -- grows like crazy, and beautiful lavender-colored curled blossoms (like snail shells, hence the name) that hummingbirds like. |
RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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jwutzke,
Thanks for sharing. I love tropical vines and quickly googled both Vigna caracalla (corkscrew flower) and Phaseolus caracalla (snail vine) and discovered Logee's greenhouse in Ct was selling Vigna caracalla which was good news. The Logees plant care instructions for this vine (and other tropicals) mention that it's heaviest bloom time is in October and November which isn't a big problem for the corkscrew flower as it stays relatively short (3 ft) and is most often grown in a hanging basket and can be brought in side, but the rapid growth and huge size of the snail vine would prevent folks in New England from enjoying the flowers that bloom on new growth. I am thinking that the fast growing annual vine could be useful to some folks. Is it a pretty carefree vine? Katy |
RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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- Posted by sami46 centralmass (My Page) on
Sun, Oct 25, 09 at 12:02
Hi
I received a tropical hibiscus as a "thank you" from the real estate agent who sold us our house (she should have given us the numbers for every handy man in Mass LOL) anyway, it's 8 years old now & it "summers" on the deck in light shade and 'winters' in our SE facing den, I've had to repot it many times. No flowers in the winter & it can get alittle "leggy" but goes like gang busters in the summer. No such luck with the mandevilla vines though, I've tried.
BTW just tell you DH it's a perennial that sadly didn't make it ;>)
I thought a hardy hibiscus was Rose-of-Sharon,etc? Am I mistaken? |
RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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| I have great success with Mandevilla. I usually just buy small ones cheap in the spring rather than trying to overwinter them indoors. I given them rich organic soil in a large pot on the patio, and site it where it receives full sun. Under those conditions, mine take off and bloom continuously until the first freeze. My white Manevilla is still on the patio and blooming...it survived the first light frost we had last week. And the low light intensity and cool temperatures have changed the bloom color from white to pale pink. Very pretty. I will just let it die in the cold and then start over with a new plant next year. |
RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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| Even in my warm climate Mandevilla will not survive outside during the winter. So, inside they come with stems cut back to about 6 inches high leaving some healthy buds at the base. Place in a bright window where they will show no signs of leafing out until spring, then the recovery growth will be rapid. Have some type of trellis support ready to train vines on until weather is warm enough to put them outside. I also cut tropical hibiscus back to a few buds when bringing them in for the winter. Have had the same plants for years. |
RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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- Posted by jwutzke AZ 9 [Snst 13]/ VT 5 (My Page) on
Thu, Oct 29, 09 at 23:49
| Sorry for the delayed response. Snail vine is incredibly carefree. And ours bloomed on new growth, after just a few weeks. 'Course I recognize it's a bit of a different climate, but still -- I can't think of any reason why it said it wouldn't bloom until October or November. Below should be a pic of our snail vine taken in April, 2008. 
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RE: mandevilla vines and tropical hibiscus
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- Posted by sami46 centralmass (My Page) on
Sat, Oct 31, 09 at 11:46
| all I can say about that snail vine is WOW! I've GOT to try that next year! |
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