I feel very lucky to have one of these plants blooming now in the greenhouse. I started seeds in early spring, then transplanted about five healthy seedlings to small pots and transitioned them to the greenhouse. It was too cold and wet for them in there and they damped off, one by one, until I thought they had all joined the great compost heap in the sky. But hidden under some more boisterous seedlings, this one vine hung on. When the weather started warming up, so did this plant. It is by no means vigorous or robust, but it has grown at a fair clip and surprised me last weekend when I saw a couple of perfect white flowers open up.

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My 2020 plans for this plant are to coddle it a bit and hope to winter in over–I’m hoping it is a tender perennial. Then, I will put it in a hanging basket and coax a bunch more of these striking blooms from it next summer.