Re: Mandevilla care

M. 'Alice DuPont' is not the easiest vine to grow as a
permanent plant here in the San Francisco Bay Area. 
While it often will survive a winter if the tuberous
roots don't rot out, it really prefers climates with
an early warm spring to get going again, and we just
don't have that.  I'd suggest giving it a liquid/fast
acting balanced fertilizer once it warms up again in
mid April, and supplement with a time release
fertilizer worked in to the soil.  

In my experience, unless this vine gets real heat
during the year, it is unlikely to do well as a
perennial vine here.  I usually have them survive the
winter also in my Sunset zone 17 conditions, but they
are never as vigorous the second year as they are the
first.  The vines you see at the nurseries are
typically pumped up with fertilizers and green house
grown to be in full bloom by mid spring, which is not
possible to do unless greenhouse grown in our local
climate.  I find they are so cheap at the mass market
stores such as Home Depot, that it makes more sense to
plant a new one each spring, rather than try to baby
one through our winters, and revive it the following
spring.  

This vine does considerably better as an in ground
vine in the deep south or even southern California,
where the winters are drier and spring is earlier and
warmer.  In Texas this can freeze to the ground and
vigorously regrow to cover an entire fence by mid
summer.  They don't do that here in the SF Bay Area.

M. 'Alice Dupont' is a subtropical vine that
appreciates rich soil, heavy regular feeding, and
excellent drainage and drier soils in winter.  The
roots can quite easily rot out when exposed to our
winter rains and cold, so keep it dry and protected in
winter.  It would be even happier if brought inside
for the winter, and then cut back and goosed with
fertilizer in spring, and moved up into larger sized
pots over time.

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