Hi. I'm worried about my potatoe vine (the one with the beautiful pale blue flowers). Temperatures have just gone down to minus 2 overnight here in the Dordogne and last year during worse conditions it only just survived (with fleece) and this summer conditions have been very hot and dry. Through all that its grown and flowered quite well, but has become very leggy, with no new growth at the foot of the plant. It's three years old. I'm intending to prune it in Spring after the cold weather. My question is, how far back can I prune it? Looking forward to any help. jay jay

jay jay wrote:
Hi. I'm worried about my potatoe vine (the one with the beautiful pale
blue flowers). Temperatures have just gone down to minus 2 overnight
here in the Dordogne and last year during worse conditions it only just
survived (with fleece) and this summer conditions have been very hot and
dry. Through all that its grown and flowered quite well, but has become
very leggy, with no new growth at the foot of the plant. It's three
years old. I'm intending to prune it in Spring after the cold weather.
My question is, how far back can I prune it? Looking forward to any
help. jay jay


My pruning book says of Solanum crispum (also of S. jasminoides):

"Plants do not respond well to severe pruning and renovation should be
spread over two or three years. Remove one old stem at its base each
year, training the strongest of the new stems as a replacement. Very old
specimens are best replaced." (RHS Pruning and Training - Brickell and
Joyce)

Of course you say that you have no new growth at the foot of the plant,
so this may not be an option - OTOH you may have several stems? - in
which case you might remove one of them. I think I'd suggest that you
should not risk hard pruning if you don't want to lose it. I think I
might try fairly light pruning in the Spring - removing a little of the
older growth if possible. I'd be tempted to try to root some semi-ripe
cuttings next summer with a view to growing a replacement if the current
one cannot be saved. Then the advice is to remove growing tips on the
young plant to encourage branching at the base which will make the
maintenance described above possible in future years.

Also, regular light maintenance pruning may encourage it to produce
shoots from lower down.

I hope that may be not too far off the mark. Good luck.

On 18/11/05 16:07, in article ,
"Janet Baraclough" wrote:

The message
from Ian Keeling contains these words:

jay jay wrote:
Hi. I'm worried about my potatoe vine (the one with the beautiful pale
blue flowers). Temperatures have just gone down to minus 2 overnight
here in the Dordogne and last year during worse conditions it only just
survived (with fleece) and this summer conditions have been very hot and
dry. Through all that its grown and flowered quite well, but has become
very leggy, with no new growth at the foot of the plant. It's three
years old. I'm intending to prune it in Spring after the cold weather.
My question is, how far back can I prune it? Looking forward to any
help. jay jay


My pruning book says of Solanum crispum (also of S. jasminoides):

"Plants do not respond well to severe pruning and renovation should be
spread over two or three years. Remove one old stem at its base each
year, training the strongest of the new stems as a replacement. Very old
specimens are best replaced." (RHS Pruning and Training - Brickell and
Joyce)

Also, regular light maintenance pruning may encourage it to produce
shoots from lower down.

I had always thought it was rather temperamental and had to be
allowed to ramp away, until two years ago when I saw one grown as a
dense mound in a large outdoor pot, with no support except itself,
tightly pruned, and covered in flowers. I've started one of my own,
cutting it back hard so instead of a climber, so it remains a (fairly)
well behaved potted shrub. It flowered almost continually all last
summer (and is outside right now, despite -2 C last night). It will lose
the leaves in this cold.

I had one that was a complete thug and had to be hacked back on a very
frequent basis. Admittedly that was in a walled garden in Jersey so
location and climate might have made it tough enough to withstand my regular
fights with it.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

many thanks for such helpful advice - I'll let you know how I get on!
jay jay

Regarding these plants, am I right in thinking that the white variety
is less hardy than the purple?
My daughter had a purple one which she was always hacking back, and it
made so much growth that she eventually scrapped it. I have 3 times
lost white ones over winter.
We are not in dissimilar weather situatons.

Pam in Bristol