Lotus Vine, Parrot's Beak 'Gold Flash'

Lotus Vine, Parrot's Beak 'Gold Flash'
Lotus

I have just been given one of these plants but no nothing much about its care. Any advice would be welcome - I live near Macclesfield, Cheshire, England.

I see you are a new member as of today, so I'd like to be the first to welcome you to Dave's Garden!

Since I'm not familiar with your particular climate, perhaps you'd like to add that info to your member profile or you could send me a plane ticket and I'll be glad to come on over and analyze your climate so we know how to advise you. :-)

In the first message of this thread you can click on the name of the plant and it will take you to the Plants Database where there is additional information on this entry.

Having said that I'll give you some things I've learned about these plants. I failed many times to keep them alive in hanging baskets here in Northern California. Our summer temps are between 85-110F, with lows in winter at night usually not below 39F and no frost for the past 6 years. If they get dry just once here in the summer they are literally toasted!

So my strategy now is to put them in ground and I prune them every couple of weeks to keep them in bounds. They could become invasive if allowed to run away. I'll post some additional images here and do be sure to check the PDB for additional info.

They like it HOT, they like to be consistantly moist and other than that they pretty much take care of themselves. I think they would do well in a glass house or hanging on a patio/tree if you have plenty of sun and can keep them consistantly moist.

This is 'Gold Flash'

And another closeup of 'Gold Flash' with the flowers open:

And this is 'Amazon Sunset', which is also listed in the PDB:
http://plantsdatabase.com/go/58243/index.html

These are invasive in the ground? How so? Take over or just spread around?

If left to its own devices, this beautiful plant will silently creep along, slowly ease in and among other plants, then begin to climb and cover, which will if left unchecked end up in some big strong plants being completely engulfed and smothered. I guess that's my definition of invasive.

Before that can happen I get out the hedge clippers and give it a good haircut to keep it from becoming a garden thug. If you lift up a mass of this lotus from one edge......there is nothing under it except dropped lotus leaves. It completely blocks the light and nothing grows under its dense cover.

Huh. Well it can fight it out with the Houtty (Chameleon Plant) but if it starts to eye the hellebore or the abutilons, I will keep the clippers handy!

I'm probably not up to this "must not dry out" stuff anyway.

Can't find the tag/stick, think Blooms planted the species for me... don't remember a catchy name, anyway. Which reminds me, your recent pics are less totally gold than others' photos of Gold Flash...

Must say, wish I had seen the Amazon Sunset; looks like a better 'balance' with the happy shrimp plants I have.

Where is Clayton, anyhow?
Xtal from Orange County