Scientific: Podranea ricasoliana
Common: pink trumpet vine, Port St. Johns creeper
Family: Bignoniaceae
Origin: eastern coast of South Africa
Pronounciation: Po-dra-NE-a ri-ca-so-lee-A-na
Hardiness zones:
Sunset 9, 11-13, 19-27
USDA 9 (may go deciduous during coldest winters)-11
Landscape Use: Trellis or espalier for wall covers, arbors, pergolas,
carports and overhangs, needs support. It is also used as an informal hedge or planted against a
wall or a fence to create a screen. It is a useful rambling ground cover for an
embankment as the stems root wherever they touch the soil, forming large,
swollen water- and soil-holding root clumps.
Form & Character: Rapidly spreading, festive and energetic, squeaky clean and robust, sub-tropical to
tropical in appearance.
Growth Habit: Eergreen to semi-deciduous, semi-woody, broadleaf perennial vine, sprawling quite rapidly to 50 feet, produces tendrils, fast rate of growth during warm season.
Foliage/Texture: Glabrous, odd-compound green leaves, leaflets lanceolate; medium texture.
Flowers & Fruits: Beautiful, multiple terminal clusters of pink trumpet
flowers with rose colored throat; fruit an elongated and flattened pod.
Seasonal Color: Flowers might be produced any time during the warm
season, but in Phoenix it generally blooms late summer/early fall, ca. September in Phoenix.
Temperature: Hardy to 20o to 25oF, and will also take some reflected western heat in
Phoenix.
Light: Full sun to filtered shade, will take some reflected sunlight.
Soil: Well-drained soil, requires consistent fertility.
Watering: Regular deep irrigations in Phoenix, only some occasional
drought.
Pruning: Prune in late winter to shape and control spread, can be pruned
severely once established.
Propagation: Softwood cuttings in summer, seed in winter, layering
anytime.
Disease and Pests: None of note.
Additional comments: This landscape vine is not common in Phoenix
landscapes even though it is generally fast-growing and easy to cultivate. Podranea is an anagram of the closely related genus
Pandorea. Pink trumpet vine (Podranea ricosolaina) should not be confused (it often is) with
Pandorea jasminoides (Bower vine).