I keep mine in a pot year 'round growing around a small tomato cage. It spends summers on the sunny corner of our deck, which is shaded part of the day. (You might try yours in a partially shaded area first and then move it gradually out into brighter sun--you don't know how well the nursery hardened it off.) Mine usually gets a nice flush of flowers in early summer, then stops for a bit, and often starts again later in the summer. I usually give it a dilute fertilizer whenever I do other potted plants.

When temperatures get close to freezing in the fall, I take it indoors and put it in my basement next to a fluorescent light hung vertically. I water it fairly sparingly and just try to maintain it during the winter. Sometimes it loses all its leaves but still starts covering itself with flower buds. Mine has been outside for the past two weeks and is starting to develop a nice show of flower buds. I saw a gardening show on TV last year that said overwintering them in a house is too hard, but I'm glad I didn't know that five years ago. :-) Love the smell!

I winter mine in the house each winter with no real problems. I place it in front of a south facing window and water it about once a week or whenever it dries out. It does start to loose its leaves by late winter and I think it does get some kind of bug while indoors and the result is a sticky residue that tends to fall on the floor around it. SO I would place a pad around the shrub while it is in your house. But I bring it outside, in full sun, after the danger of frost has passed, give it a good pruning, fertize it, and it really comes back beautifully and flowers nicely all summer.

Spider mites :) I'm exceptionally familiar with them. Wash them off with mild soapy water says my Uncle the botanist :)

-Marie