Mandevillea

My mom used to have a mandevillea growing on the windowsill in our living room. I loved watching it grow, and especially the trumpet shaped flowers. Despite the fact that we live in a country that used to be a "tropical paradise", it has been very hard to get anything to grow nicely up here... I guess it's a combination of too much wind and poor soil. I miss the flowers and wanted to try growing mandevillea up here. Last summer a friend gave me two plants, and I brought them down in my backpack, carefully packed in a shoe box. :) I planted them in potting soil and they took right off. Soon they had 10 to 15 blooms on each plant, but I was so disappointed when the bugs ate off the blooms just has they were ready to open. Then we had a batch of puppies, and they were hard on the poor plants! So they've had a rough life so far, but they've stayed alive! 

Now they're starting to bloom again, and I thought it was worth sharing a couple pictures with you!!! I dream of having a whole bed of these some day, and letting them climb up the bars on the porch! :)