Mandevilla

Mandevillas are all about the big, tropical-looking blooms. They come in shades of pink, red, and white, and many shades in between. Now there’s a new color added to the range, a beautiful apricot. The large five-petaled blooms often have a rich golden throat inside that adds to the tropical look. Flowers are borne in clusters that will continue to grow and add more buds all the time. Be careful not to damage these growing points of the bloom clusters or new buds will not form on that stalk. The size of the blooms can vary quite a bit depending on the variety. In general, smaller flowers tend to be much more abundant, and the larger blooms are a little more sparse, but quite grand. The mandevilla plant has become a common patio plant, and rightfully so. Mandevilla is a tender woody vine much beloved by gardeners in warmer climates. It provides a nonstop blooming of huge pink trumpet shaped flowers. The very showy flowers have white and gold throats and are up to 10 cm across and arranged in racemes. Mandevilla blooms heaviest in summer and sporadically throughout the rest of the year. This vine’s fuzzy young stems twine around supports, eventually scrambling to heights up to 10 ft. The handsome leathery leaves are dark green, up to 20 cm long and 7.6-10 cm wide.