I grow Tropaeolum tricolor inside my "Mediterranean house" in Portland, Oregon, where winter low temperatures typically reach minus 4 to 6 C. A couple of years ago it was a little colder for about 10 days, and the large tropaeolum plants killed back. The damage reached the tubers, and they have not resprouted. Fortunately, however, they had flowered outside the wire mesh side of the bulb house and hummingbirds got to them, so a number of seedlings appeared the next year, and I still have plants. I was growing them on ornamental metal supports, and I think contact with the metal may have exacerbated the freezing damage. At my former home, stems that got outside the wooden bulb frame survived equally cold temperatures and snow. In nature, this species probably experiences frost regularly, but not very cold temperatures for extended periods. It grows up trees and shrubs, many of which are broadleaf evergreens, and that's where I'll try it in the garden if I can find the volunteer tubers. At present they've just reached flowering maturity and are sprawling on the plunge bed in the bulb house, trying to strangle the narcissus. We grow many broad-leaf evergreen shrubs in this area. Another, smaller-growing species to try outdoors is Tropaeolum brachyceras, which is now available from Dutch commercial sources. It's yellow and probably more fully drought-tolerant than T. tricolor, given its more northern distribution in South America. Jane McGary, Portland, Oregon, USA On 1/27/2019 6:38 AM, Shmuel Silinsky wrote: > Anyone have thoughts on cold hardiness of Tropaeolum tricolor or T > leptophyllum? Does the data I have seen (zone 8 and 9 respectively) apply > when they are in growth (meaning I am growing them as winter active and > summer dormant)? > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…