las flores

Last summer I ordered 3 vines to plant by my porch posts from a gardening catalog. When they arrived they were small, shrunken, woody looking roots. After a long summer of loving attention, ONE of the vines had grown about 1.5' and the other 2 remained happy at about 6" high. I was sorely disappointed and knowing that they were annuals decided they had been a waste of money. I almost pulled out the dead plants when fall/winter hit, but fortunately didn't.

Apparently these vines are perennials around here because all of a sudden this spring, the obviously dead vines, started sprouting leaves! The most ambitious of the vines has grown all the way up the post and is now snaking along the porch roof. The other two have just made it to the posts and will soon be scooting their way up.

The best part of these vines, called "Trumpet Vine" is this gorgeous flower! The first ones appeared last week. Aren't they so cute! They must taste good too, because some nasty little critter is eating them. If you look closely you can see the bite marks. creep. The best thing about this vine is how the flower actually grows. If you look at the picture, you can see a little thing that looks like a yellow berry. This berry grows longer and longer and eventually turns orange and then the flower pops out. Too cool.