Tropaeolum

[Lesley Cox]

Tropaeolum tricolor can be rampant but trainable, on a netting fence or similar but T. ciliatum is EVIL!!! It will ramp and crawl underground and over everything it touches and smothers as efficiently as ivy. It seeds everywhere as well. Much worse than T. speciosum in its most vigorous habitats, and without the saving grace of stunning flowers. BE VERY CAREFUL.

[Gerdk]

Lesley,
Where do you grow these Tropaeolums, inside a greenhouse or in the garden?
My T. speciosum quickly disappeared when planted outside.

Gerd

[Maggi Young]

Gerd, when the time is right I will send you enough Trop. speciosum to experiment with.
 we find that it grows best when planted in a deep soil, about 0.5m to 0.75 m AWAY from the base of a hedge or tree. If you try to plant it right at the base of the item you wish to  have the Trop. climb up, it will fail. I warn you, though, once you have established this beautiful climber, your garden will never be the same again... after a few years you will have Trop. speciosum in places you never knew you had places!  It is probably the worst weed in our garden.... I pull up about two large sacks full of top growth every year.....it is particularly bad when it covers small leaved rhododendrons which can be defoliated by that quite quickly.

[Gerdk]

     Thank you Maggi, please do!
I would like to try it. I want to see this diabolic plant  rampaging in my garden 

Gerd

[Brian Ellis]

Gerd it is difficult to establish in a dry East Anglian garden and I managed to kill several.  Last year I was told to try it on the North of a shrub and to cover the roots with tile or some similar stone to keep them cool.  This I did and it grew and flowered for me for the first time as I type I can see it is still in foliage to a height of 1m 50cm and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will grow on from there to rampage through my garden.  Good luck.

[Gerdk]

My town is no. 3 in Germany concerning precipitation - more than 1000 mm/year. Also more shade than I would like to have.
So theoretically good conditions for T. speciosum!   

Gerd

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Do they still produce as many knives and forks as they used to in Solingen Gerd ? 

[Maggi Young]

Gerd, Brian, be afraid ! You have been warned!

[Gerdk]

Maggi: A speach of my father was -
Some people don't believe that rain will coming up - until they get wet 

Luc:  this industry has declined but there are still some factories here which produce cutlery ' Made in Solingen ' or as an archaismen ' Me fecit Solingen '

Gerd

[johngennard]

I have it scrambling over the medium to larger rhodos.without doing any harm but it took a few years to establish.I planted the originals in a north facing peat bed and I now find it far away from the original bed but not rampant as with Maggie.I believe Maggie's climatic conditions are far more to its liking than in the Midlands as is Ireland.In any event the top growth is easily removed.

[Susan]

Here it is an absolute weed and if left will smother everything in its path.  It grows high into Rhododendrons and at present is covered in seed. The birds seem to like it immensely hence it seems to be widespread here.

Is this what you are really wanting?  If so, Gerd and Brian PM me, but as Maggi says you have been warned!

I would actually like to know how to get rid of it as it appears to go very deep into the ground, and you cannot dig it out. Every year it gets worse. Maybe it is coming through from Scotland.

Susan

[Susan]

Sorry thought I had added one with berries and one growing through the rhododendrons.

Susan

[Gerdk]

Susan,
Thank you for these stunning pics. Not only the flowers are beautiful - also the fruits.
Too bad, that this plant has such an evil behaviour !   

Gerd

[Paul T]

Susan et al,

So is it an annual plant, without tubers or anything?  It is certainly setting a lot of seed, which is why I ask.  Looks wonderful, and if I hadn't read your warnings I would have been enquiring about seed myself perhaps.  I love the Tropaeolums, even though I only grow a couple of them.

[David Pilling]

Points of view differ   One seed catalogue says...

Tropaeolum ciliatum
Rarely available is this fine plant from Chile. Tuber forming, it is a very vigorous climber (particularly under glass) and bears all summer yellow, Mimulus-like flowers, each an inch or so across, all delicately and tastefully veined in red.

All the Tropaeolum speciosum seeds I have bought in the past have quickly rotted, this year I've got them from the seed exchange and they seem to be OK.

I found that T. ciliatum germinated on the warm to cold transition at the end of the year. I wonder if T. speciosum does that or if it as the seed packets lead one to believe it's simply a matter of a cold period.