Commonly known as ‘Bluebell Creeper’
These plants are bushy twining climbers from Western Australia with ovate dark green leaves and very attractive flowers which are normally blue but there are also forms with pink and pure white flowers which we stock.
S. heterophylla are not especially vigorous climbers and you can normally make them perform in a pot with a couple of cane supports. More mature plants may need trellis or wire support.
These are evergreen plants but they are frost tender and one of those plants which we move into the heated greenhouse for the winter. They will tolerate temperatures of around zero without any wind chill factor indoors but outside it needs to be a very mild winter indeed for them to survive. Since this is exactly what we have experienced in recent years you may well be lucky!
The bell shaped flowers are ½in long and appear singly or in trusses of four to eight flowers from June through to September. Plenty of regular liquid feed will ensure that growth and more flowers continue on through the summer months. Growing all three colours together can create a pleasing effect.
Your plant will very probably go on to produce large (1in) rounded blue berries in late summer or autumn. These can be sown in the spring with bottom heat and softwood cuttings are easily rooted in early summer.
This is a tender but very rewarding climber to grow and is rightly one of our most popular conservatory plants.
