Love Thy Neighbor ...

Even if her Rangoon Creeper is way better than yours. Like light years better.

My Rangoon Creeper (Quisqualis indica)

My neighbor's Rangoon Creeper

Both hers and mine froze to the ground this winter. Clearly, this is a plant that prefers to be planted in the ground rather than confined to a container, even one as large as the half barrel in which mine is planted. I've asked Susan before whether she fertilizes it or does anything special for it ... according to her, she might feed it a little Miracle-Gro now and then if she thinks about it. I have to wonder, if like real estate, it's all about location, location, location with this plant. Susan's is planted on her back fence, which has a north-south exposure. The roots are on the southern side of the fence. There's almost no shade in her back yard and I think the plant gets at least 8 hours of full sun a day.

Come mid-September, I plan to release my Rangoon Creeper from captivity and find a place for it in one of the garden beds. It may never look as good as Susan's plant, but it's got to look better than it does now.

I find the flowers only lightly fragrant but Amy must have had far more developed olfactory glands than I do, because she'd practically swoon from the fragrance.

What's more, you have to love a plant that is performing as beautifully as this one under adverse conditions, i.e. August.

I've changed my mind at least twice since I started this post about where I think I should plant mine. I'll figure it out eventually!