Rangoon Creeper (Quisqualis indica) Growing in an Arch or Arbor - Part 3

In part 2 of this article, I discussed the initial growth stages of the Rangoon Creeper vine, including its first flowering. Realizing the potential for this vine to become robust and aggressive, I thought pruning to create a more compact look for the trunk of the vine to make it look tidier and looking less overpowering than the rest of the nearby plants.

In this part, I'll discuss other ways to thin out the trunk portion of the Rangoon Creeper so it becomes less invasive. As mentioned repeatedly, the Rangoon Creeper, given the right amount of sunlight and watering, will grow quickly. The vine on your arch, arbor or pergola will look like a tangled mess without the proper control of the branches.

Rangoon Creeper (Quisqualis indica) Growing in an Arch or Arbor - Part 2

In part 1 of this article, I discussed the location where the Rangoon Creeper or Chinese Honeysuckle was planted. There is full day sunlight in this location and so I expect the vine to grow quickly and yield beautiful flowers.

Because the vine has twining young shoots, I tied a piece of insulated solid strand wire from the front fence near where its planted up to the top of the garden gate arch. The wire will be used to train the Rangoon Creeper's vine and reach the garden gate arch.

Rangoon Creeper (Quisqualis indica) Growing in an Arch or Arbor

The Rangoon Creeper is an extremely spectacular vine that blooms throughout the year in tropical heat. When in full bloom, it is covered with large trusses of tri-colored flowers that are very showy and pleasantly scented.

Carpenter Bees Pollinating Flowers of Maiden's Jealousy

This little fella and its friends have been frequent visitors to our front garden ever since our Maiden's Jealousy vine (Tristellateia australasiae) also known as Showers of Gold, has started to flower. Every flush of blooms thereafter guaranteed the return of these carpenter bees.

Recently, with techniques to promote continuous flowering in the Maiden's Jealousy vine, these carpenter bees now visit everyday. In our front fence, there could be as many as 5 bees all pollinating the flowers of the vine at the same time. It's no wonder, most of the flowers become fruits.

Techniques for Continuous Flowering in Maiden's Jealousy

When I planted the Maiden's Jealousy vine beside a concrete post with a simple homemade wire trellis, I was quite hopeful to see flushes of blooms like those I see from a neighbor's front fence. The Maiden's Jealousy vine, also known as Showers of Gold (Tristellateia australasiae), seem to bloom year-round with beautiful clusters of yellow flowers that.

The vines were started from cuttings from the neighbors' and I was frustrated that for more than 2 years, the vines have not yielded a single bloom. This is despite the woody stems and branches as well as the lush foliage and vigorous growth. The vigorous growth necessitated frequent pruning because the post trellis wasn't very wide nor tall.

Removing an Unwieldy Vine - Thunbergia Mysorensis

From my last update of the Thunbergia mysorensis, and after 3 years, it's curtain call for our Mysore Clock vine (Thunbergia mysorensis). This vine is also called Lady's Slipper and Doll Shoes vine. I've had this vine since 2009 when DH was able to grow the vine from cuttings we picked up from a Visita Iglesia.

It was a long wait of around 2 years when its first ever bloom appeared in 2011. There was only 1 flower that appeared in that year. In the following year, 2012, only 2 flowers appeared in summer.

That's a total of 3 flowers in the 3 years that the vine was with us.

Pedilanthus tithymaloides variegatus or Devil's Backbone

I've had this plant for over a year now but didn't take much notice since I just thought it was a common landscaping plant. It has interesting zig-zag stems and the leaves' colors give a nice accent to any garden spot.

Well today, I saw tiny red flowers that looked like little red birds.

Thanks to Joe and Karyn at the GardenWeb (gardenweb.com), I was able to identify this plant as Pedilanthus tithymaloides variegatus.

The plant goes by the following common names: Devil's Backbone, Christmas Candle, Jacob's Ladder, Japanese Poinsettia, Redbird Cactus, Slipper's Spurge, Zigzag Plant.