Tropaeolum tricolor

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Sun, 27 Jan 2019 12:20:23 PST
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)?
>
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