Blushing Susie Vine

The first blooms on our Black-Eyed Susan Blushing Susie Vine from Park Seeds finally opened this past week. Although the seeds were sown indoors in March, the plants are just now blooming. I haven't had the best luck with ornamental seeds this year! This vine is an annual, so it should bloom until frost and maybe I'll get lucky and it will reseed itself next year!



I think these cute little flowers were worth the wait. The mailbox looks so nice with beautiful vines climbing on branches next to it. The branches are from an unidentified tree/shrub that we removed from the backyard earlier in the year. They make fine poles for vines to climb.



The area around the mailbox is very hot and dry, so I planted portulaca, because it thrives in hot dry areas, and I hate lugging the watering can down there. The portulaca did very well, but I wanted to add more interest to this area. I have tried clematis, but I can't seem to keep it moist enough, so I figured I would give the blushing susie vine a try. The portulaca provides a good shelter for the blushing susie's roots. I think I will use this strategy again next year in this spot. I water these vines once a week at the most, and we are currently experiencing an awful drought in our area.



If you give these seeds a try, keep in mind that it took mine five months from seed to bloom. I also had a very low (30%) germination rate with the seeds. The young vines are very delicate and break easily, so transplant them with care. Once they establish themselves, the one vine turns into many vines, so you don't need to plant many to fill in an area.