Tropaeolum pentaphyllum
Brian Whyer (Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:53:43 PDT)

I have had this plant outside in a large pot against a south facing wall, and now heavily screened behind culinary bay and sage bushes etc. It grows up most years to a height of 8 feet into a clematis armandii before getting frosted sometime in the winter; and usually before flowering. I guess I may have had serious flowering for around 3 years out of the last 15 or more.
This is in a garden where I have had pots of Tropaeolum tricolor flowering in unheated glass and plastic greenhouses. They look a bit sad when frosted but recover as the temp. rises, and when I tire of them in mid April take late spring frosts in full flower in the open, before going dormant.

Brian Whyer, Buckinghamshire, England

--- On Mon, 20/10/08, John Grimshaw <j.grimshaw@virgin.net> wrote:

Uli Urban wrote about Tropaeolum pentaphyllum:

This has always been my view as well, but earlier in the summer I was
visiting a garden in the Cotswolds and saw the familiar flowers of T.
pentahyllum twining round something else. I expressed my surprise and was
told it was hardy there! The garden in question is even higher than we are
here, so I shall put my plant out for 'hardiness testing' next spring.
It
certainly doesn't deserve precious greenhouse space...

John Grimshaw

Dr. John M. Grimshaw