Here just outside of Boston, one of
my Cup and Saucer Vine (Cobaea scandens) plants just bloomed for the first time
yesterday, Nov. 14. I'd started it from seed indoors under grow lights
on March 1. I put the seedlings out in mid-May and now, seven months
after planting it's just put out its very first gorgeous flower. I'd
like to solicit the group's help in understanding this.

The easiest and most obvious explanation is the drought during the
summer. But I'm not sure that's it. I had other flowering vines that did
fine, and I did good bit of hand watering. Unless I'm analyzing this
all wrong, I actually think that this late blooming may be primarily a
consequence of having started the seeds too early. The seed packet
indicated "6 to 8 weeks before average last frost" which here in Newton
would mean late February to mid-March. So I planted the seeds March 1 in
a germinating mix in a seed tray and they grew rapidly indoors.

By early May, the vines were going crazy, twining around themselves and
around my grow light shelves, but it was still too cold to plant
warm-weather seedlings outside. This is NOT good for a plant. Joe
Rajunas taught me about the importance of "growth momentum" for a
seedling, that when a plant has started to grow vigorously in its young
life it MUST continue this vigorous growth and not be slowed down. Yet
the combination of my early sowing and the cold spring forced me to
submit the several Cup and Saucer Vine seedlings to exactly that
situation.

So by the time I hardened the seedlings off and planted them outside,
their growth momentum had been broken, and I think they just never
recovered. Is this a reasonable explanation? Indoors the plants grew
quickly and vigorously, and this vine is known for being a fast grower.
But once outside, the vines just languished all spring and summer. The
leaves looked fine and the plants didn't appear diseased, and there was
no yellowing; they just grew very very slowly. They just sat in the
ground for four or five months and sulked, hurt I think by the arrest of
their youthful vigor early in life.

Now, during the fall, the plant seems to have survived our moderate
frosts in October and November as the leaves are still green. Here it is
mid-November and the plant is **8 months old** and it finally decided
it was ready to bloom. Amazing.

(By the way, I also love the way it climbed 15' up the cable wire on the outside of my house.)

I'd be curious to hear others' thoughts on this. I may be completely wrong.