Lapageria rosea
Lee Poulsen (Sat, 18 Sep 2010 14:37:32 PDT)

After nearly two months of horrible email service by my Internet
service provider, I think the problems are under control and so I've
had a little bit of time to glance through some of the conversations I
haven't been able to follow very well.

I grow Lapageria in the inland southern Calif. valleys, so it gets hot
during the day during the summertime. However, it always cools off at
night down to at least the low 60s (°F) or even into the mid-50s (°F).
So I think that helps mine withstand the heat. Otherwise, they grow
quite well, although they don't flower as profusely as I'd wish. I
think that might be because I grow them in pots that are too small for
them (5 gal. for the large plant and 1 gal's for the small plants). I
do grow them on the east side of my house (under shade cloth during
the summer) so that probably helps as well. Also our climate may be
drier than Jim W's, but I don't know for sure. I water them all year
round.

What I think they would really appreciate however, is to have cool
roots, even if the air gets hot. So I really want to get them into the
ground, on the east side of the house some day. They're perfectly
hardy here, so I don't know how much below freezing weather they can
tolerate.

I'd love love love to get some of the other colors and combinations of
colors. I hear that the Berkeley Bot. Gardens offers them from time to
time, but it's a 6 hour drive... ;-)

And yes, Jim McK, I also grow Philesia magellanica, near where I grow
my Lapageria, but I never give it direct sun. I have mine in a 2 gal.
pot and it has basically filled the pot. I had heard that it needs
even cooler growing conditions than Lapageria, but mine has been doing
great and started flowering last year for the first time, and is
flowering again this year. It's a small bush looking plant (about
40-50 cm tall) and the flowers look exactly like Lapageria flowers
only smaller and dangling from various branches among the Philesia
bush instead of hanging from a vine. Are there other colors of it
besides the rosy red, like for Lapageria?

I also think it wants cool growing roots, so I keep mine on a slab of
concrete that stays cooler than the air during the summer.

--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a

On Sep 17, 2010, at 1:46 PM, Jim McKenney wrote: