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Tetrastigma voinierianum



2nd December 2017


A large evergreen vine with insignificant flowers. Not really hardy in any meaningful sense.
That should really sum the situation up, but it doesn't.
I have loved this great sprawling monster since I was a teenager, I delight in its lush growth wherever I see it. It isn't hardy, I don't even try to convince myself that it is hardy. I have always avoided buying one, though it is occasionally offered. I had no wish to see a cascading wonder of evergreen foliage languish in an inadequate pot. However, I was given one and my heart jumped. I love it, I still love it, I think I will always love it.
I grew it in the warmest corner of my best protected greenhouse but unfortunately it was put out there just a few months before the beast from the east visited. The outcome was expected and inevitable. Hopefully I can live without it and not feel the need to kill another. In the meantime there is a beautiful one in the greenhouse at Wisley that I can visit. I pat it affectionately in passing, we have a long history. No-one else needs understand it.