mandevilla

I have recently bought a Mandevilla and would like to keep it outside in my flowerbed with a trellis to grow on. Everything I have read seems to say that you need to bring this in the house in the winter. It gets below 0 sometimes. Does anyone know if I can keep this outside and how o protect it. Also if I have to bring it in how do I care for it? Thanks.

I plant mine, pot and all, and then dig it all up and bring it in for the winter. I didn't, with my first mandevilla, I just planted it in the ground and left it, and it didn't make it through the winter. I'm sure it's warmer here than there. So if it died here, you'd probably have similar bad luck.
You can dig a big hole, bury the plant in the pot and then dig it all up and keep it inside, trellis and all, when the temps drop.

In your zone I don't think there's any way you could leave it outside--it can't handle temps much below freezing for very long, so getting all the way down to 0 (assuming you're talking degrees F not degrees C) will almost certainly kill it. I'm in zone 9 and I've had them die sometimes when I've left them outside and I think you're probably zone 6 or 7.

i always bring mine in for the winter. i learned the hard way one year. left them out and they didn't survive

It will grow quite a bit before it's time to bring it inside. When you do, it's best if you can leave it intact. Then in early spring you can cut it back to a couple of feet and start to feed it. When the nights are about 50 degrees, you can put it back out. It will fill in nicely and look lush very quickly. If it's way too large to overwinter inside, you have no choice but to cut it back when you bring it in. Just make sure to decrease the water it recieves and don't feed it after the middle of August. Otherwise, it will continue to put on growth inside, but the new growth will likely be sparse and spindly. The more the plant rests over the winter, the more energy it will have for flowering the next season.
Chris
I forgot to mention that I root the cuttings in moist sand and add those the base of the original plant or start new plants. I've had one mandevilla for 17 or 18 years now. I love this plant!

This message was edited May 9, 2008 5:03 PM

This message was edited May 9, 2008 5:07 PM

growgirl, do they root easy

They are easy, but they take 3 - 4 weeks to produce sufficient roots. I've never tried another way, so maybe moist sand is not the best way. I didn't mention this above, but I take in my original mandevilla in the fall, but I just take cuttings from the rest of my plants because my house is so small. I plant the cuttings each spring and by June the first flowers are forming on the new plants.
Chris

thank you chris
kathy