Dear All, Tropaeolum pentaphyllum (ssp pentaphyllum) is a vigorous winter growing tuberous species, even so vigorous that it can become a weed in a greenhouse because it will entwine in all neighbouring plants. Its flowers are rather insignificant: green with reddish-brown dots and a short spur. It has a fairly long growing period for a tuberous tropaeolum but will go dormant with warm weather in summer. I do not know how hardy to frost it is, I have never tested with my plants but I think it is not very hardy and is not suitable for outdoor cultivation in winter cold climates below freezing. This is one of the easiest species Tropaeolums to grow and I found them not fussy in their requirements. During dormancy I keep all tuberous Troaeolums in their pots (I grow all of them in plastic pots) warm and dry but not totally baking dry like for example a tulip or Oxalis but in a shaded spot of the greenhouse with some water from time to time. Some Tropaeolums have the nasty habit of not sprouting at all for one or even more seasons. I just discovered a shoot on a T. brachyceras that had not shown any signs of life for several years! Nobody seems to know why this happens. Seedlings may at first have a different growing pattern depending on when the seed was sown but getting older they will take on the original winter growth rhythm. Many bulb seedlings stay evergreen in their first or second "dormancy period" which does not mean they really changed. Myself I stopped growing this plant because it was too vigorous in my greenhouse which in winter is full of tender plants brought in from the garden where they spent the summer. For a good display of very charming flowers I recommend T. tricolorum. It is dainty, not over-vigorous and sprouts reliably every year to flower in late winter, dormant in summer. There is a strictly summer growing Tropaeolum pentaphyllum ssp megalopetalum which I have been growing for some years. it has two bright red "ears" like Mickey Mouse and thus becomes quite interesting, still very vigorous and needs a lot of space to scramble. Germination from its blue seeds is quite erratic, there is some unripe seed..... hopefully I will be able to distribute it when ripe before it freezes., This plant does not flower the first year from seed but will form a tuber which will become quite substantial the following years and then is a reliable plant. Greetings from Germany...... getting cold now. Uli