Tropaeolum Speciosum flowering at last.

Oh happy days. I have bought the above a few times only for them to never be seen again.
A friend told me there was an old saying that the only way to get this plant to grow is to steal a bit. She grew it so told me to dig some "tubers" up while she wasn't looking.
This task is not easy as where the plant breaks the surface can be a long way from the tubers.
However after digging lots of holes in her garden (lucky she's a nice friend!) I found a few tubers.

Planted them here about 4 years ago. 1st season a few stems came up but no flowers, 2nd season similar. 3rd season I saw nothing and thought it had died, but no this season it has appeared about 15ft from where I planted it!

I'd thought it would look very fancy growing through a Sambucas Black Lace, however, it has other ideas and is growing up and through a Magnolia Stellata and it's smothered in flowers, yippy!

Wonder if others have tales to tell about this gorgeous if somewhat fickle plant?

 

Hi, @silu! I tried the tubers from a certain famous seed company one year - not a great success, I have to say.... but I bought several plants for customers' gardens from a fantastic nursery locally which specialises in plants that will thrive in our area, and all did indeed thrive. It's an amazing plant, strongly recommend it. If you live anywhere near Edinburgh, the Botanics is the place to go, where you can see it growing up through all sorts of trees and shrubs

 

Thanks @UsedtobeDendy . Occasionally I visit the Botanics still, used to quite a bit when I lived in Edinburgh. Dundee Botanics is worth a visit too, whether they"do" Tropaeolum or not I don't know as I've always visited there in the Spring time.
What does really please me is my neighbouring farmer hates gardening and does all the necessary jobs in the shortest possible time. While I thought mine had died, guess who has huge amounts of Tropaeolum drapped over 2 enormous conifers? For years every time I passed when it was flowering it cheesed me off considerably tosee it but now I have my own, be it somewhat of a smaller amount.

 

Hi @silu -well done you! I have repeatedly bought tubers from a helpful seller on ebay. A couple of occasions I have had great flowering, but then the tubers rotted off over winter and nothing came through next time. And that's even when kept in large tubs rather than my clay soil. So just keep your fingers crossed for next year...